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Press, 19 May 1984, Page 10

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Damages ... Reza Palavi’s being castrated by mistake led to damages of $l2O being granted in the District Court at Sydney. Judge Smyth made the award to the nine-year-old cat's owners, Paul Haege, aged 78, and Helen, aged 72. They sued the N.S.W. Cat Protection Society and a veterinarian, Dr Andrei Ross, who performed the operation after a neighbour had complained about wild cats. — Sydney. Fake canvas

Melbourne’s famous Rembrandt self-portrait, believed to have been valued at $4.1 million, is a fake. A National Gallery director, Patrick McCaughey, said the canvas — which has hung at the gallery for several years — was not painted by Rembrandt at all. The painting had been done 100 years later than previously believed, by an unknown eighteenth century Dutch artist. — Melbourne. Writer honoured The novelist, Barbara Cartland, has been elected a fellow of the prestigious

Royal Society of Arts. Miss Cartland, who will be 83 in Julv, continues to write a stream of teary romances famous partly for a complete absence of anything resembling sexual explicitness. — London. Royal scare The Civil Aviation Authority has said it is investigating an incident in which a light aircraft breached a security corridor around a helicopter carrying Princess Anne. It happened as the Wessex helicopter was preparing to land at Whitley Bridge, North Yorkshire. A C.A.A. spokesman said the helicopter pilot reported that a Cessna approached within 800 metres. — London. 10 drown Ten passengers were drowned in southern Egypt when an express bus veered off the road and plunged into a canal, the Cairo daily “AlGomhouriya” newspaper reported. It said the accident occurred near the town of Samalut, 227 km south of Cairo, when the bus driver lost control while trying to overtake a truck. — Cairo.