Cable briefs

Press, 8 September 1982, Page 8

Cable briefs

Panda dies

One of the twin pandas born to Shao-Shao, the Madrid Zoo’s giant panda, has died in an incubator, said zoo officials. The Zoo director, Mr Tomas Cerdan. said that the female cub. bom at the week-end. died from respiratory failure. She and her sibling.' whose sex has not been determined, were the first twin pandas born in captivity outside China, and the second birth of pandas by artificial inseminaton. The first cub was taken in by its mother and is progressing normally. — Madrid

Turkish ship sunk

Three crew were killed when Iraqi missiles sank a Turkish ship off the Iranian port of Bandar Khomeiny on Saturday. the Turkish Foreign Ministry said yesterday. Ministry officials said the vessel, which they named as the Mar Transporter, was hit as it entered the harbour. Three other crew were wounded and the rest of the ship's complement of 29. including the master, were flown to Teheran. — Ankara.

Starvation deaths

The death toll from starvation in the eastern-most Indonesian province of Irian Jaya. has reached 119 with the discovery of seven more bodies, the national Antara news agency says. Another 367 people were in critical condition, it said. Starvation caused by long droughts has plagued the remote mountainous district of Kurima in Irian Jaya since June. The drought. followed by snowfalls, had damaged 700 hectares of farmland in the area, an official said. - Jakarta.

Paraplegic dies

A paraplegic died when he was left alone in a car for 11 hours while his wife and four other relatives visited a Houston amusement park, the police said. Leonardo Franco Flores, aged 58, had been a paraplegic for the past 10 years. He could not speak, feed himself or go to the toilet. His family had left two windows of the car rolled down and shaded him with a towel while they went to the Astroworld Amusement Park. - Houston.

Weapons claim

President Ferdinand Marcos has said that Japanese ships were supplying antiGovernment forces with weapons,, shortly after both governments had agreed to call the strafing of the Japanese tanker "Begg" Suspected of arms smuggling "accidental." Mr Marcos had earlier said on his state visit to the United States that several. foreign vessels had been driven off when they attempted to land arms for rebels. The presidential press office confirmed that : he identified the vessels as Japanese and some of the smuggled weapons as Sovietdesigned AK-47 assault rifles. — Manila.