Cable briefs

Press, 21 December 1981, Page 8

Cable briefs

Take-over ban call French opposition legislators have called on the country’s Constitutional Council to strike down a law nationalising main banks and industries passed by the socialist-dominated National Assembly. The nine-meihber Constitutional Council, which has final say over the legality of Government bills, has one month to rule on the law nationalising 36 banks, five main industrial groups and two giant financial holding companies. The socialist Government has said the bill increasing State control of the industrial sector from roughly 12 per cent to 17 per cent, formed the cornerstone of its economic programme. — Paris

Thai Govt reshuffle

The Thai Prime Minister (General Prem. Tinsulanonda) has appointed nine Ministers from the Social Action Party, Thailand’s biggest, in a Cabinet reshuffle to strengthen support for his coalition Government. Eleven Ministers, including a Deputy Prime Minister, (General Prachuab Suntarangkul and the Foreign Minister (Air Chief Marshal Siddhi Savetsila) had earlier submitted their resignations but General Prem accepted the resignations of only eight Ministers, and General Prachuab and Air marshal Siddhi retained their posts. — Bangkok. Armenian jailed A young man of Armenian origin who admitted shooting a Turkish consular employee in Geneva, has been sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for murder. A Geneva court also banned him from Switzerland for 15 years after the end of the sentence. The public prosecutor had asked for a maximum 20year term for Mardiros Jamgochian, who was convicted of shooting a Turkish official in a Geneva street, on June 9. — Geneva. Army ‘success' The Salvadorean Army has announced the success of a wide-scale anti-guerrilla operation in the northern Morazan region. It said 150 guerrillas and IB soldiers were killed, 5 rebel campsites and 12 bases were destroyed and a rebel radio station seized, according to a military spokesman, who said that “Operation Safeguard’s” main objectives had been achieved. The operation also resulted in many Leftist guerrillas fleeing toward the Honduran border to a zone which, under a treaty signed last year, neither the Salvadorean nor the Honduran Army was allowed to enter, the spokesman said. — San Salvador. Govt gives in Bolivia’s military Government has bowed to pressure from thousands of striking workers and agreed to gradually restore trade union rights after an 18-month ban on union activity, according to well-informed sources. The agreement was given after long talks between Government representatives and miners’ leaders, the sources added. The talks began to try to resolve a 13-day miners’ strike at the Huanuni tin mine, bolivia’s largest. The miners were demanding the restoration of union rights and pay rises. — La Paz.