Cable briefs

Press, 4 August 1981, Page 8

Cable briefs

Patient dies A 36-year-old Dutchman who was kept alive by an artificial heart until he received a donated human heart has died, “overcome” by infection, kidney and pulmonary complications, a hospital spokesman said. Willebrordus Meuffels, aged 36, a retired bus driver, died a little more than a week after I receiving a human heart to take the place of the plastic pump that kept him alive for three days. He is only the third to receive an artificial heart and stayed alive for longer than either of the others—Houston.

Police accused A Liverpool man has said that the police: deliberately slashed his penis with a machete during rioting , in Toxteth last week, according to a report in the “Sunday Times." The report said the man. Michael' Blaney, a white 28-year-old who. lives in Toxteth, admitted he was struggling with a. policeman when a second policeman attached him with a machete with a 45cm blade. The second blow, he said,. was acrossl the groin, and a doctor who later treated him said that he had nearly been castrated by the diagonal slash. The newspaper- said that it was impossible to prove exactly how the wound occurred. It said there were no witnesses, and that ,the victim had a criminal record—London..

Matching inflation The Argentine central bank is getting ready to issue a one million-peso bill, in ,an effort to keep the nominal value of its currency notes in line with the country’s soaring inflation. The new note will be worth SNZI6O. The peso has depreciated by 275 per cent since the beginning of the year and has the dubious distinction of being the world’s weakest currency. Virtually nothing in Argentina costs less than 1000 pesos (16c). The Buenos Aires newspaper “La Nacion" greeted the news of the latest bill by publishing a photo of a one million-mark bill issued in 1923 by the Weimar Republic, known historically for its galloping imTaticr —Buenos Aires. ■

Panama mourns

The death in an air crash of the Panamanian leader, Omar Torrijos, has plunged Panama into mourning and politicians of all shades agreed that his demise had left a political vacuum. General Torrijos’s stature as a forceful regional statesman was also recognised in messages of condolences sent by Latin American leaders after news of his death last week. “In the ranks of the Government it will be difficult to find a figure combining all the qualifies of the fallen leader,” said Arnulfo Scalone, president of the Opposition Liberal Party.—Panama City. Testing opposed . Australia would be concerned to see any extension of nuclear testing “of whatever kind" by France in the South Pacific" the Australian Foreign Affairs Minister, (Mr Tony Street) has said. Mr Street, who is nearing the end of a four-day tour of Papua New Guinea preparatory to his attendance at the South Pacific Forum in Vanuatu on August 9, was commenting on reports that France could test neutron weapons on Mururoa Atoll in ; French Polynesia.—Port Moresby. Killing ‘despicable" The killing of a South African nationalist veteran. Joe Gqabi, in Salisbury at the week-end will spur on ■guerrilla , forces to fight harder against South Africa’s white-minority Government, the “Sunday Mail” newspaper has said.ln an editorial, the pro-Government newspaper described the murder of Mr Gqabi, the Zimbabwe representative of the African National Congress, as a despicable act which proved that South African agents were operating in the country. The 51-year-old A.N.C. official died from head and chest wounds when a hail of bullets ripped into his car as he left his home in a Salisbury suburb just after midnight. There were no witnesses to the shooting, but the Government quickly attributed it to an alleged plot by the South African Government.—Salisbury.