Cable briefs

Press, 22 October 1986, Page 10

Cable briefs

Strike chaos Strikes by French Public Service unions caused chaos in some parts of Paris yesterday but the initial impact of a call for 24-hour stoppages by six million workers across the country was patchy. Traffic jams were reported. Some radio stations replaced news programmes with music and the Stateowned S.N.C.F. rail authority ran an average of one in four trains. — Paris Plans for airline The British Government will announce today its plans for the return to public ownership of British Airways. The Transport Secretary, Mr John Moore, will set a date between the end of January and early February, 1987, for the sell-off of “the world’s favourite airline,” which is expected to raise between £BOO million and £lOOO million ($2304 million to $2BBO million). — London President ‘elected’ Bangladesh’s military ruler, General Hussain Mohammad Ershad was officially declared elected president after the controversial October 15 election. — Dhaka Students seek passports Two university students from the former Portuguese colony of East Timor have asked the Dutch Embassy in Indonesia to provide them with passports allowing them to leave for Portugal. The two men were

among three students from the Catholic Atma Jaya University who were arrested in September by Indonesian police after a cache of arms linked to the East Timor Liberation Front was found in a house rented by one of them. — Jakarta A.I.D.S. affair A British television actor has admitted that he had A.I.D.S. and said he had an affair with the United States film star, Rock Hudson, who died from the disease last year. Douglas Lambert, aged 50, told “Woman’s Own” magazine that he had had "a very discreet” affair with Hudson. — London Untimely interment Three destitute patients in a hospital in southern Hyderabad city were presumed dead and dumped in a morgue alive, where one of them died, the “Indian Express” newspaper reported. — New Delhi Sinn Fein arrest A leading member of Sinn Fein, the political wing of the outlawed Irish Republican Army, was arrested just south of the border between the Irish Republic and the troubled British-ruled northern province. Martin McGuinness, a vice-president of Sinn Fein, was detained in County Monaghan. — Dublin