Cable briefs

Press, 13 April 1984, Page 8

Cable briefs

Spy claim denied The Australian Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr Bill Hayden, has denied Soviet allegations that Australian diplomats in Bangkok tried to recruit Soviet Embassy officials as spies. The Russians had tried to cultivate a junior officer of the Australian Foreign Affairs Department in Bangkok, he said. A Soviet K.G.B. agent had tried to persuade Paul Buraard to give the Soviets .access to classified documents and maps relating to the Thailand-Kampuchea border. — Sydney. Lungs problem Australia’s youngest heart-transplant patient, Fiona Coote, is still having problems with her lungs and remained in a critical condition last evening. But doctors at St Vincents Hospital said that although Fiona, aged 14, had fluid in her lungs and was too weak to cough it up, they were satisfied with her condition. — Sydney. Deportations Nigeria is deporting nearly 3000 illegal immigrants who had been rounded up by security forces, the Immigration Director, Lawai Sambo, has said. Mr Sambo said that more than 1000 persons arrested in Lagos, most of them from Togo, Cameroon and Chad, had been deported. The raids had been part of a crackdown on violent crime. The rest, mainly Ghanaians, were being held in a detention camp until suitable transport was arranged.—Lagos. New pill A subsidiary of the Johnson and Johnson company has said that it will market in the United States a new form of birth-control pill designed to reduce substantially the risk of side effects. The Ortho Pharmaceutical Corporation said that the pill, called OrthoNovum 7-7-7, was formulated to more closely match the monthly female hormonal cycle than traditional compounds. The pill has been marketed in Europe and in Canada for about a year.—New York.