Cable briefs

Press, 17 February 1984, Page 6

Cable briefs

Tests defended

A British Government Minister has defended the controversial wound tests on animals with an assertion that they had saved soldiers’ lives in the Falklands war. There would have been more widows and fatherless children as a result of the South Atlantic conflict but for the experiments with sheep and pigs, said Geoffrey Pattie. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals called for a freeze on the research until questions about the work had been fully answered. — London. Torture reward A £5OOO ($10,800) reward has been offered for information on the three raiders who sliced off a tobacconist’s toe and tried to force him to eat it Hany Tipple, aged 57, and his wife, Cicely, are in hospital still badly shaken, say the police. The Retail Confectioners and Tobacconists’ Association has offered the reward for information leading to a conviction. — London. N-test collapse At least 12 workers were injured, one critically, when the earth collapsed after a nuclear blast at a United States underground test site yesterday. There was no escape of radiation from the desert test-site and the workers were not exposed to radiation, an official of the Department of Energy said. The injuries were believed to be mostly fractures and bruises. Officials said that the blast was less than 20 kilotons, equivalent to less than 20,000 tons of TNT. — Las Vegas.

Rebel call

Rebels fighting Indonesian forces in the Irian Jayan capital of Jayapura have called for reinforcements, say Intelligence sources in Port Moresby. The national broadcasting commission’s programme “The Morning After” quoted a “Government agent” as saying that he had intercepted an O.P.M (Free West Papua) movement communication. The written order from rebels in Jayapura said that an extra 500 men should be sent to the provincial capital. — Port Moresby. I.M.F. meeting Top economic authorities of 22 governments, representing the world outside the Soviet bloc, will meet in Washington from April 12 to 13 to review rich and poor countries, the International Monetary Fund announced yesterday. Special attention is expected to be given to the huge and highly unusual flow of money into the United States — perhaps as much as SUS4O billion last year. Normally the United States exports capital. — Washington.

Genocide claim Two Kenyan parliamentarians have accused Kenyan authorities of “genocide” against a clan of ethnic Somalis in the north of the country. Many people had been shot or burned to death on the orders of the District Commissioner of Wajir, they said. One of the parliamentarians said that the campaign, which he said had started February 5, was being done under the guise of stamping out banditry. He had seen four people shot dead and two burned to death. — Nairobi.