Cable briefs

Press, 12 April 1984, Page 10

Cable briefs

Mondale ahead With 40 per cent of the vote counted last evening, Walter Mondale appeared to be in a good position to win the Democratic Presidential nomination race in the key Pennsylvania primary election. Mr Mondale had 45 per cent, Mr Hart, 35, and the black rights leader, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, 20.—Philadelphia. Big drug find Heroin with an estimated street value of £1.5 million ($3.23 million) has been discovered by Customs officers at Liverpool docks. The heroin, weighing 14 kilos and originating from Pakistan, was uncovered by a Customs team making a routine search of a ship.— London. Strike ends

India’s 26-day national port strike has ended with an agreement on pay rises between the Indian Government and 300,000 dockworkers. The new agreement raises the Government wage bill by 448 million rupees ($44.8 million), an increase of about 21 per cent. The minimum wage for a dockworker increases from 325 rupees ($32.50) a month to 550 rupees ($55).— New Delhi. Chinese satellite China has successfully launched its first communications satellite, the Staterun television has reported. Hailing what it said was a new achievement for Chinese space technology, the television said the satellite was functioning satisfactorily. China put its first experimental satellite into space in 1970 and has launched a number of others since. It hopes to use space to reform its telecommunication system.—Peking. Antarctic claim The Chilean President, General Augusto Pinochet, has inaugurated an Antarctic settlement of six Chilean families in a ceremony that has reasserted Chile’s claim to a slice of the continent. General Pinochet landed in an Air Force plane at the Teniente Rodolfo Marsh air base on King George Island, just north of the Antarctic

circle. The island is also claimed by Argentina and Britain. “This is our first Antarctic city,” General Pinochet said, calling the colonisation effort “a reaffirmation of our sovereignty.” — Santiago. Heroin availability The New York City police commissioner, Benjamin Ward, has said that the SUSI. 6 billion ($2.4 billion) heroin ring that was recently broken probably would not have a lasting effect on the availability or price of the drug. Those organisations would regroup in six months, he said — Washington. Food fight Protesters from fish and chip shops, hamburger bars and Chinese restaurants have cooked up a demonstration against a new tax on takeaway food. They delivered a 600,000-signature petition to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr Nigel Lawson, pleading that his 15 per cent sales tax on hot takeaway food could put them out of business. — London. Damages award The estranged wife of John Entwistle, the guitarist with The Who rock group, won damages in the London High Court over a television interview in which he described her as “a dog.” Alison Entwistle, aged 38, said she was “very, very upset” when a friend told her what her husband had said. She won the undisclosed damages from two television companies involved in the interview. She did not sue her husband because he had apologised.—London.

Death sentence Another former Kenyan Air Force serviceman has been sentenced to death for his role in the failed coup attempt against the Government in August, 1982. Senior private Odhiambo Ndege, aged 26, was found guilty of treason by a five-man military court. Ndege was the fourteenth airman to be sentenced to death by hanging, although none has yet been executed—Nairobi.