Cable briefs

Press, 10 March 1982, Page 8

Cable briefs

Sea talks restart Final negotiations on the draft Law of the Sea Treaty have started in New York with an ocean dividing the position of the United States and the other 149 nations taking part. The United States pulled out of the negotiations a year ago — they were close to completion then — because President Reagan was not prepared to commit his new Administration to the consensus worked out after eight years of talking. The United States is happy with the treaty’s -definitions of territorial and economic zones, which allow free passage to military and civilian ships and aircrafts, but is resisting clauses on deep-sea mining. — Washington. Name request ■ . The Nationalist Chinese Government on Taiwan has urged foreign journalists to refer to the country as the Republic of China and call the people on the island Chinese instead of Taiwanese. The appeal came in a six-page pamphlet for visiting journalists issued by the Government Information Office. There was no indication that the Government plans any action against journalists not taking note of the appeal. — Taipei. Fortress room A steel-lined fortress room is reported to have been installed in the country home of the Prince and Princess of Wales, to protect them from a terrorist attack. The reinforced walls of the room at Highgrove, Gloucesterhire, were designed to withstand a rocket attack, according to reports in the “Sun” and the “Daily Express.” Buckingham Palace would not confirm or deny the reports. Prince Charles and Princess Diana have been told to go straight to the room if their home, said to be particularly vulnerable to attack, comes under fire, according to the “Express.” — London. Corruption drive . China ' has announced tougher punishments — including the death penalty — for such crimes. z as smuggling, drug-trafficking, and bribery as part of a drive aimed particularly at corrupt officials. Officials would be dealt with more severely than others, according to an amendment to the criminal code adopted by the Standing Committee of China’s Parliament. — Peking. Secrets kept The United States Supreme Court .has refused to order the super-secret National Security Agency to disclose whatever it knows about unidentified flying objects. The court, without comment, let stand a ruling’ that the agency’s files on the subject do not have to be made public under the Freedpm of Information Act. A group calling itself Citizens Against UFO Secrecy in 1979 sought all N.S.A. documents relating to UFOs. The executivebranch agency released some information, but withheld other data. The other data, according to a lower court judge who saw it, “clearly relates to the most sensitive activities” of the agency. — Washington. Pilots flee Two Nicaraguan pilots who fled to Honduras have said that the Soviet Union had supplied Leftist-ruled Nicaragua with six transport planes and two helicopters. “Soviet combat aircraft will also be supplied soon to Nicaragua,” they told a press conference, adding that Cuban military advisers were in effect running their country. The pilots said they had fled because of the MarxistsLeninist course Nicaragua’s Sandinist leaders were pursuing. Their allegations came after recent United States charges that some Nicaraguan airports were being expanded to accommodate advanced Soviet fighter planes.—Tegucigalpa. ‘Boats attacked’ China has charged that two Vietnamese gunboats blew up' one Chinese fishing boat on the high seas and set another on fire and towed it away. Radio Peking said the crew of 18 on the first boat was missing,, and six Chinese had been wounded on a third boat hit by 14 shells. It said China lodged a strong protest with the Vietnamese Embassy in Peking, demanding return of the seized boat and its crew, compensation for damages, and- a halt to all attacks on Chinese fishing boats and provocations on the China-Vietnam border.— Peking. U.S. warhead plans The Reagan Administration plans a big increase in plutonium production to build up the United States nuclear weapons arsenal, the “New York Times”, reports. It quoted Administration and Congressional officials as saying President Reagan was expected to approve soon a 15-year plan for nuclear warhead production. This would require a huge expansion of the nation's capacity to produce plutonium and’ tritium, two of the vital materials for making atomic weapons. — New York.