Cable briefs

Press, 12 June 1987, Page 6

Cable briefs

Air chaos eases British air traffic controllers ended a 24-hour strike but customs officials and other civil servants were still on a two-day stoppage for increased pay. British Airways cancelled virtually all domestic flights and severely cut European services earlier this week but yesterday urged passengers to “turn up and take off.” Airline officials said chaos was easing at airports and flights were returning to normal.—London. . Satellite service Lord Howe Island’s communications links with the mainland will receive a major boost with the commissioning of a satellite earth station on the . island, 780 km north-east of Sydney: The Telecom earth station, linked to A.U.S.S.A.T., will give residents 24-hour S.T.D and I.S.D. access to and from the mainland and a wide range of other services including telex, facsimile and dial-up data services. The existing service is automatic for local calls, but trunk calls are manually connected at Lord Howe Island and Sydney, using high frequency radio circuits.—Sydney. Fast pass - A Northern Ireland student, Andrea King, was seeking a place in the Guinness Book of Re-

cords, having learned to drive and passed her driving test on the same day — her seventeenth birthday. She learned the Highway Code and watched videos on how to drive in preparation. A driving instructor collected her at dawn on her birthday and gave Andrea, who had never even sat behind the wheel of a car before, eight hours driving practice and she passed the test in the afternoon. — Newcastle. Jail examinations Nearly 130 suspected Sikh extremists have sat school and college examinations inside, their maximum-security jail. They were among nearly 400 people arrested after an Indian Army assault on the Golden Temple in Amritsar, the holiest Sikh shrine, in June, 1984. The suspects sat examinations ranging from high school to master’s degree. — New Delhi. Heroin on the run A Hong Kong man who tried to enter Canada with SUS3.S million worth of heroin stashed in his running shoes was sentenced to seven years in jail. Raymond Sair, aged 39, pleaded guilty to a charge of importing a narcotic. A second charge of possession for the purpose of tra taking was dropped.—