Cable briefs

Press, 24 April 1987, Page 10

Cable briefs

Player defects A touring Czechoslovak rugby player relied on athletic legs to defect, the British Home Office said yesterday. Victor Kavrinka, a winger from the Gottwaldov rugby club, disappeared during an early-morning jog last Saturday and turned up later in London, where he asked for political asylum. Kavrinka apparently ran 7km to the railway station in Kidwelly, Wales, where he caught a London-bound train. — Kidwelly. Earthquake shutdown An earthquake that hit northern Japan early yesterday triggered safety mechanisms on three nuclear plants, forcing them to shut down. There were no radiation leaks, no damage and no casualties in the earthquake, which measured 6.5 on the Richter scale, said a power company spokesman. — Tokyo. Compensation claims The Swiss chemical company Sandoz A.G., says it has received com-, pensation claims for about 100 million Swiss francs ($115.91 million) for the pollution of the Rhine after a fire at the company’s plant in Basle last November. — Basle. Military A.I.D.S. . The Defence Department has tested more than 1.7 million of its activeduty personnel for A.I.D.S. and has found that almost 2800 have been exposed to the disease, says the .Pentagon. Of those individuals who tested positively for exposure, about 200 have developed A.I.D.S. — Washington.•

Class hostage A 14-year-old Arizona schoolgirl angry over a snub by a girlfriend held her class hostage at gunpoint for more than half an hour yesterday before being persuaded to surrender. According to the police, Beth Templeton said she brought her stepfather’s .357-magnum revolver to school and held the class at bay because a girlfriend had refused to talk to her. — Phoenix. Bride dies A young bride who was left a widow by a traffic accident less than two hours after her wedding, has died of the injuries she suffered in the collision. Carol Zagorski Phillips, aged 24, died almost three weeks after the death of her new husband and his brother, who had been best man, when .a limousine carrying the wedding party to the reception collided with another car. — East Meadow, New York. Motor-cycle to Pole A Japanese adventurer has become the first person to reach the North Pole by motor-cycle, but he needed a ski on his front wheel to do it. Shinzi Kazama arrived on the top of the world on Monday night after setting off on March 7 on an 800 km trip from Ward Hunt Island. A ski attached to the front wheel of Mr Kazama’s modified Yamaha 250 cc motorcycle helped to glide across the ice. Two eskimo guides travelling on snowmobiles laden with supplies accompanied Mr Kazama on the trip. — Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.