Cable briefs

Press, 4 November 1986, Page 8

Cable briefs

Artificial heart Surgeons in a British hospital have carried out the country’s first transplant using a completely artificial heart A spokesman for Papworth Hospital said a dying 40-year-old man was given the heart in a shr 20min operation. The Jarvic artificial heart is a temporary measure until a human heart is available.—London. Industrialist freed Spanish police have freed an industrialist kidnapped by E.T.A. Basque separatist guerrillas, but a police official was killed in the gun-battle. Jenaro Garcia Andoin, director of Police Affairs of the Basque autonomous government, died when shots were exchanged with guerrillas holding Lucio Aguinagalde, aged 69, in a cave near Vitoria. One E.T.A. guerrilla was injured in the gunfight. Mr Aguinagalde was abducted on October 15 for refusing to pay a "revolutionary tax” that E.T.A. levies on Basque businessmen.—Vitoria, Spain. Boat capsizes Thirteen people on their way to a wedding drowned when a boat capsized after a heavy storm off the eastern Indonesian island of Timor, says the “Suara Karya” newspaper. Fishermen rescued 50 people. The 13 women and children who died were trapped in the sinking boat.—Djakarta.

Pet reprieved A farmer who had his arm amputated after being bitten by his pet crocodile, spared the reptile with, a plea from his hospital bed. A Parks and Wildlife spokesman said the crocodile, named Charlene, shredded the right arm of Alf Casey, aged 68, when he was feeding it in’the backyard of his home.—Brisbane. On hold too long ;A Cairo musician who applied for a telephone line 15 years ago dropped dead as he was reaching to sign his long-awaited contract at a telephone company office. An emotional Adel Atteya Mostapha, aged 50, collapsed and died before being able to finalise the agreement that would have given him his first telephone. Many Egyptians must wait years for a response to their applications for phones.— Cairo.