Cable Briefs

Press, 9 March 1982, Page 8

Cable Briefs

Pull-out opposed Jewish settlers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank barricaded a main road yesterday, cutting off part of the area, in a further protest against Israel’s withdrawal from north Sinai. Sections of the bank zone were isolated briefly when members of a religious kibbutz blocked the Jordan Valley road with rocks and’ tractors, eyewitnesses said. Scuffles broke out between angry drivers and kibbutz members as traffic jams developed. Police and soldiers eventually removed the barricades. — Tel Aviv. Walesa ‘to be freed’ The wife of the interned Solidarity leader, Lech Walesa, has told Western reporters that her husband will be released for the christening of his baby daughter on March 21. Mrs Walesa said she expected to have her husband home over the Easter holidays. It was not known whether Mr Walesa, who was detained on December 12, might be free for good. — Warsaw. Topless protest The father of a 16-year-old girl whose topless protest shook members of a top people’s hunt at the weekend has said she did it with his blessing. Edward Lane of Gloucestershire, said his daughter. Sharon, was old enough to know her own mind and he respected her action. “I think if she had been there with all her clothes on and with a dozen other protestErs she would just have been swept aside. But as she had hardly anything on they couldn’t do that because she was the centre of attention.” Sharon, who was whisked away by the police seconds after exposing her 36-24-36 figure at .the start of the Berkeley hunt meet, may now face prosecution on a public order charge. — London. Guerrillas helped West Germany is delivering humanitarian aid worth about SNZ2S;OOO to the Kampuchean resistance group led by a former Prime Minister, Son Sann, which is based along the Thai-Kampuchean border, an embassy spokesman has said. The aid, mostly medical supplies, is the first from European Government to Son Sann’s Khmer People’s National Liberation Front which claims to have about 8000 armed men fighting to oust the Vietnamese forces in Kampuchea. — Bangkok. Heavy fighting Heavy fighting is raging between Vietnamese-led forces and Khmer Rouge guerrillas in western Kampuchea, near the eastern Thai border town of Aranyaprathet, military sources have said. Two Thai villagers were killed’and another was injured when their truck crashed while fleeing artillery shells falling in another Thai village 60km south of the border town, the sources said. — Bangkok. Honour for Reagan President Reagan will address a joint session of the British Parliament when he visits Britain in June, a White House spokesman has said. He is the first United States President to be accorded the honour. Mr Reagan, who will be accompanied by his wife, Nancy, will also stay at Windsor Castle for two nights at the invitation of the Queen. The President plans to leave for Europe on June 3 to attend a seven-nation economic summit meeting near Paris, visit Pope John Paul in Rome, and take part in a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation summit meeting in Bonn. He will be the second non-Brit-ish head of State to address the British Parliament. The first was de Gaulle. — Santa Barbara. Low opinion of U.S. An opinion poll made, in five West European nations says that Britons have the lowest regard for the United States. Only 46 per cent of Britons polled said they had a favourable opinion of the United States, compared with 55 per cent of French people, 73 per cent of West Germans, 63 per cent of Italians, and 49 per cent of Belgians. Asked how much confidence they had in the United States to deal wisely with world problems, 39 per cent of the Britons said they did not have very much confidence and 21 per cent said they had none at all. — New York. Royal rise angers Labour members of Parliament and unions are furious over British Government plans to give the Royal family a pay rise of nearly SNZI.I6 million in the Budget. The opponents of the rise, the “News of the World” has reported, say it should be pegged to the Government’s 4 per cent limit on public sector pay rises. Instead, the Government is expected to boost the Royal family’s income tb keep it in line with rising costs, the paper said. — London. . j