Cable briefs

Press, 12 April 1982, Page 6

Cable briefs

Canberra's ‘shadow’

A' Soviet “auxiliary intelligence gathering” ship has begun shadowing the Canberra, correspondents on board the requisitioned P and O liner report. The small Soviet vessel came within two miles of the Canberra, which is carrying 2000 soldiers to • the Falkland Islands, and stayed within sight all day, while refuelling at sea and helicopter exercises were performed. Naval sources on board confirmed the ship’s identity. — London. Harrier ban off An overtime ban by RollsRoyce union leaders has been lifted so that vital work on Harrier jets for the Falkland Islands task force can go ahead. The ban had delayed work on the Sea Harrier’s Pegasus engines, which involved a six-man maintenance team. But after angry protest against the veto by workers at the company’s plant, a meeting between management and a union committee was called to end the dispute. The overtime ban was introduced three months ago in response to the company's lay-off plans. — London. Ecevit held The former Turkish Prime Minister, Bulent Ecevit, has been arrested by military authorities for giving an interview’ to a Norwegian newspaper. The semi-official Anatolian News agency said that he risked prosecution under a law' which banned Turks from making statements prejudicial to national security to foreigners. The law carries a minimum sentence of five years imprisonment. Mr Ecevit has already spent two months in jail for breaching a military decree banning former political leaders from making public political statements. — Ankara.

‘Border settled’ Egypt and Israel have reached an agreement to run their future Sinai-Gaza border through the middle of the town of Rafah, even if this means demarcating the roof-tops, says the weekly magazine “Akhbar el Yom.” The Egyptian Foreign Minister (Mr Kamal Hassan Ali) said that the pre-1948 border of Egypt and Palestine w’ould be respected. The magazine said Israelis and Egyptians had decided against destroying buildings in the border area, and markers would be placed on the roofs where necessary. Israel earlier wanted the border strip bulldozed clear of obstacles, saying that otherwise the whole town should be included in occupied Gaza. Israel is scheduled to hand over the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt on April 25. — Cairo. Skipper charged A fishing boat captain has been found guilty today of breaching a 19th .century Federal law against cruelty to seamen by. dunking one man overboard and imprisoning five others during voyages off New England. A District Court jury found Jesse Dale Hansley, aged 24, guilty on six counts of violating the 1898 law, last invoked in a civil case against a captain who flogged members of his crew. Hansley acknowledged during the trial that he pointed a gun at a crewman, hoisted him overboard into the water, then confined him to the boat's bathroom after the crewmen admitted pouring salt in the engine during a three-day storm. The boat later went to New Bedford and hired five new men. When they put into Newport the five newly hired crewmen went to the police and said Hansley had imprisoned them and fed them bad food because they did not work fast enough. - Providence, Rhode Island.