Cable briefs

Press, 10 December 1981, Page 8

Cable briefs

Radical miners' chief Arthur Scargill has become the leader of the national Union of Mineworkers. It is regarded as the strongest union in Britain and, outside the top Government Ministerial posts, its president is one of the country’s most powerful men. An avowed socialist radical and once member of the Young Communist League, Mr Scargill, aged 43, won the post by a landslide, scooping up 70 per cent of the first preference votes and annihilating his three opponents after a two-year-long, deeply political campaign. Militants among the miners’ union see Mr Scargill's victory as a mandate to pursue its original 25 per cent pay claim in the face of the National Coal Board's 9.1 per cent offer. — London. Cheerful British The British are the happiest people in Europe, according to a $2 million survey of 20 countries. The Spanish and the Italians were found to be the most miserable, the West •Germans not far behind. The survey, commissioned by the European Values Study Group and other bodies, including the Catholic Church, said Britons and their Continental neighbours worried about the economy and the weather. But the British spent more time laughing, said the survey. Ninety-five per cent of Britons questioned said they were very happy or quite happy with their lot in life. — London. Court's ruling The United States Supreme Court has moved to discourage foreigners bringing liability suits in American courts involving American products abroad simply in the hope of winning a more favourable judgment. The Court ruled that American Courts could dismiss a case brought on behalf of survivors of five residents of Scotland killed in the 1976 crash of an American-made plane, near Talla, in the Scottish highlands. The United States attracts such suits because most of its States have strict liability rules in which the burden is on a manufacturer to show his product is not at fault. — Washington. ‘Hit team' jailed A college lecturer and eight students who formed themselves into a Left-wing “hit squad” and went looking for Right-wing rivals, have been sent to prison at Manchester. The nine had pleaded not guilty to kidnapping a youth, aged 16, in Rochdale, and the prosecution offered no evidence on that charge. But they admitted possessing offensive weapons when they bundled the youth into a van and made him reveal the names of National Front members living in the town. — Manchester. Allen client probe The Justice Department has expanded its inquiry of Richard Allen to include the National Security Adviser’s failure to list his consulting firm’s clients on his financial disclosure form, according to a Government official. Justice Department investigators had met officials of the Government Ethics Office to discuss the client question, he said. “The judgment that he should have listed (his clients) is going to be made,” said the official. — Washington. Protest climb Two climbers have tried to scale a 44-storey building in a protest against nuclear arms and in memory of John Lennon, but they were stopped at the eighth floor. The climbers, stopped when San Francisco’s Embarcadero Building officials removed a window pane in their path, said they'would come down when officials agreed to fly an anti-war banner all day. But j when Edwin Drummond and Lia Simnacher returned to the ground the banner was quickly taken down. — San Francisco.