Cable briefs

Press, 4 February 1982, Page 6

Cable briefs

Quarry quarrel The owner of a slate quarry in north Wales which it is said will serve as a bunker for the Royal Family or the nation's art treasures, in a nuclear war, wants to evict the Government now that it’s 21 year lease. has expired. The labyrinth of caverns under a 30 metre rock cover at Manod Mountain was used as a bunker for works of art. including the Crown jewels, during World War 11, the “Guardian” said. Owen ? Glyn Williams, director of Cwt-Y-Bugail Slate Quarries, whose land includes the site of the mountain, said: “There is good slate in that mine, and I want it. If I am told that I am being unpatriotic, I would reply that it is much better on patriotic grounds to employ men and export slate to try to get this country out of the rot than it is to store art treasures.” — London. Hunger strike ends A Soviet Pentecostalist. Lydia Vashchenko, has ceased her hunger strike and is slowly recovering, according to an American doctor who saw her in a Moscow hospital. Miss Vashchenko began the fast at Christmas with her mother while in the United States Embassy. She took refuge there years ago, with her parents and four other Pentecostalists, in the hope of being allowed to emigrate to the United States. The embassy said the mission’s doctor and a consular official had visited Miss Vashchenko at the Hospital and found her taking solids. — Moscow. C.I.A. link denied The head of the American Central Control Intelligence Agency, William Casey, has told the Intelligence Committee of the House of Representatives that the agency has tentatively concluded “there was no official C.I.A. involvement in Libyan terrorist training.” The committee’s chairman (Mr Edward Boland) said the hearing had focussed on questions over the adequacy of an internal C.I.A. investigation into possible links between the spy agency and two former agents, Edwin Wilson and Frank Terpil, charged with setting up a terrorist training project in .Libya. Mr . Boland said he was "pleased” with the C.l.A.’s co-operation with his committee’s inquiry. — Washington. Daylight robbery Thieves have snatched ; $1,163,000 painting by thi sixteenth century Dutch mas ter, Pieter Breughel the Elder, in a daylight raid on a London gallery. The two robbers strolled into the Courtauld Institute Galleries, lifted the picture from the wall and walked out. Only then did security men realise that a theft was taking place, and take up the chase. The thieves escaped in a taxi. The police said one of the men hid the painting — entitled “Christ and the Women Taken in Adultery” — under his raincoat. — London. Secrecy order The White House, determined to stop leaks of classified information to reporters, has ordered officials involved in national security to sign a secrecy pledge. The order, signed by the National Security Adviser (Mr William Clark) on behalf of President Reagan, set up a system under which every copy of a document circulated by the National Security Council will have a different number, making it easy to determine who has handled it. — Washington. McAliskey challenge Bernadette (Devlin) McAliskey, the fiery champion of Catholic civil rights in Northern Ireland, says she will stand for election to Parliament in the Irish Republic. She said that she would challenge the former Prime Minister, Charles Haughey, leader of the opposition Fianna Fail Party, in his Dublin constituency. Mrs McAliskey is a former Northern Ireland member of the British Parliament. — Dublin. Appeal refused Marcus Sarjeant, the teenager who fired blanks from an imitation pistol during Trooping of the Colour ceremony in June as the Queen rode past, has been refused • leave to appeal against his five-year jail sentence. Sarjeant, aged 18. was jailed at the Old Bailey on September 14 after admitting discharging a firearm with intent to alarm the Queen under the provisions of the Treason Act, 1842. He pleaded self-glorification to justify his act and no intention to harm Her Majesty. But he had earlier tried to obtain a real gun and live ammunition. — London. Laker crisis over The financial troubles of Laker Airways are over, according to Sir Freddie Laker. “Altogether I’ve raised $6O million (SNZI3B million) and for the first time in weeks you can say that I am buoyant and talking to the press. The money he needed to solve his cash crisis came jointly from the McDonnell Douglas Finance Corporation of America, and the Clydesdale Bank. — London.