Cable briefs

Press, 26 July 1984, Page 8

Cable briefs

Courting parties Israel’s governing Likud bloc and the Opposition Labour Party yesterday pursued their efforts to woo smaller factions into a new coalition Government after a General Election in which neither side won a clear mandata With all except the military votes counted, Labour had taken 45 seats and Likud 42 in the 120-seat Parliament Both parties say they can form a coalition, but to do so they would need help from several of the 13 small parties which won seats on Monday.—Tel Aviv. Clamp on councils The British Government has clamped down on what it calls big-spending town councils by freezing their budgets, prompting a threat from council, leaders that they would break the law to fight the move. The Environment Minister, Patrick Jenkin, told Parliament he was using a newly enacted law to curb the spending of 18 councils in England, including the Greater London Council, which the Government has already moved to abolish. Mr Jenkin said the action was designed to protect local taxpayers by curbing “the worst excesses of the highest spenders.”—London. Swim aborted A blind man and a polio victim have failed in their J attempt to swim the 21-mile English Channel. The Channel Swimming Association’s secretary, Audrey Scott, said the two men, both from Egypt, had set out together from Dover’s Shakespeare Beach but failed to make it to the French cbast. Unfavourable winds had forced them to get out of the water and return to England in escort boats.—Dover. Zambian jailed The wife of a prominent Zambian politician has been jailed for two years by the Wolverhampton Crown Court for smuggling £30,000 ($79,000) worth of cannabis in V.LP. baggage. The “Daily Telegraph” said that Susan Chakulya, aged 37, and a mother of nine, told a detective that she lost about 22kg during eight months in custody awaiting trial because, “I am no longer able to drink champagne every day.” Her husband, Wilson, is a former Zambian Foreign Minister and Defence Minister, and once was High Commissoner to Canada for the southern African nation.—London Speaker on trial The Deputy Speaker of Zimbabwe’s Parliament, ’ James Bassoppo-Moyo, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of attempted murder. He appeared in court accused of shooting and wounding two men at a liquor store near Masvingo, in south-eastern Zimbabwe, in April.—Harare.