Cable briefs

Press, 16 February 1982, Page 8

Cable briefs

Haig appalled The American Secretary of State (Mr Alexander Haig) is appalled by the decision of French banks to lend the Soviet Union $1 billion towards construction of. a natural-gas pipeline from Siberia to Western Europe. He said high State Department officials would leave for Europe soon to discuss with Washington's allies the whole question of future Western credits for the Soviet Union. United States opposition to . the $lO billion pipeline, which will carry gas to West Germany. France is based on fears that'll would make Western Europe susceptible to Soviet blackmail and because it would provide the Soviet Union with much needed hard currency. — Washington. Missionary killed An American Catholic missionary has been shot and killed by four hooded, gunmen in Guatemala, A spokesman ' for the . Christian Brothers said Brother James Arnold Miller, aged 37, died instantly. The killing raised to 15 the number of Catholic priests and religious people who have been killed or kidnapped in Guatemala since 1960, when the order began its work in the. country. — St Paul. ‘Army’ crippled The Northern Ireland police have crippled the Irish National Liberation Army guerrilla group, rounding up . nearly half its members, police sources have said. The police said that 24 men and women had been arrested over the last two weeks and charged with belonging to the outlawed 1.N.L.A.. a Marxist-Leninist group which is fighting, like the much bigger . Irish Republican Army to drive British troops out of Northern Ireland. The I.N.L.A. has about 50 members. — Belfast. Salvador clashes Salvadorean Government troops have been engaged in fierce clashes with. Leftist guerrillas in the province of San Vicente, the Armed Forces reports. A military communique said an emergency had been declared after the fighting broke out. The communique said military patrols were mopping up in Usulutan and coastal areas after a guerrilla withdrawal from the area after several days of heavy fighting. — San Salvador. Victories claimed A week-long bailie in the 18-rrionth w’ar between Iraq and Iran has ended, the Iraqis claiming a huge victory and the Iranians saying . they inflicted "continual defeats" on the enemy. The Iraqi news agency quoted a military dispatch as saying that the Army had seized control of Shib Pass, killing 7700 Iranians, wounding “an enormous number,” and destroying "innumerable tanks, cannon, machine-guns and armoured vehicles.”; From Teheran, the Iranian news agency reported that the Iraqi troops had been beaten back in ' the most extraordinary and unprecedented hand-to-hand fighting” of the war. — Paris. Brigades ‘mole’ sought

A Rome magistrate has issued an arrest warrant for a telephone operator at the Italian Parliament, whom the Italian press has dubbed, ‘’the Red Brigades mole." Giovanni Alimonti. 27, a switchboard operator at the Parliament, handled hundreds of telephone calls daily from leading politicians. He is suspected of taking part in a guerrilla attack last month which seriously wounded the deputy head of Roms antiterrorist police. —■ fame.