Cable briefs

Press, 21 May 1987, Page 10

Cable briefs

U.S. accused

The Communist Party daily, “Pravda,” has accused the United States of seeking to inflame tensions along the SovietAfghan border by encouraging Muslim rebels to launch sorties into Soviet territory. In a dispatch from Kabul, Pravda accused Pakistan of joining the Reagan Administration in trying to sabotage a “national reconciliation” programme which the Soviet-backed Afghan Government says is aimed at ending the war.—Moscow.

1255 dead

A total of 1255 people

have been killed in two separate guerrilla wars in the Philippines this year, 22 per cent less than the same period last year, the Army said today. It said 1121 people were killed up to May 15 in violence related to the nationwide communist insurgency. The rest were casualties from a smaller Muslim separatist rebellion on the southern island Mindanao.—Manila.

Maxwell offer

The British publisher, Robert Maxwell, has offered to acquire Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Incorporation, one of the largest United States independent book publishers, for about SUS2 billion. The $44-a-share offer for the Florida-based company was made through British Printing and Com- , munications Corporation and marks Mr Maxwell’s biggest foray into the United States. — New York.

Mother acquitted

A judge acquitted a mother of stealing her son from his homosexual father minutes before a jury was to have begun deliberating in her case. “The evidence shows, in my view, that the mother, Betty Lou Batey, was consumed by fear,” Superior Court Judge Douglas Woodworth said. “I find the defendant not guilty.” Mrs Batey, aged 43, was said by her lawyer to have feared her son, Brian, now 16, would be harmed by his father’s homosexual lifestyle. —San Diego.