Cable briefs

Press, 12 September 1987, Page 10

Cable briefs

J. E. Bacardi dead Joaquin E. Bacardi, a retired president of the rum empire founded by his grandfather, has died at his home in Nassau. He was 85. Mr Bacardi was bom in Santiago de Cuba, where Don Facundo Bacardi established the company in 1862. When Facundo died in 1886, the business was taken over by his sons, Emilio Facundo and Jose. Jose was Joaquin Bacardi’s father. After the 1959 Cuban revolution, Bacardi and other family members were forced to leave Cuba.—Miami Deal struck?

China’s leaders have agreed among themselves on who will fill senior political positions following next month’s 13th National Party Congress, a Hong Kong newspaper reported. The conservative Englishlanguage "South China Morning Post,” quoting an unidentified Peking source, said the leaders reached agreement after four weeks of debate at the seaside resort of Beidaihe.—Hong Kong.

Five killed Two gunmen disguised as cleaners forced employees to lie on a supermarket floor and then killed five of them execu-

tion-style in a hold-up that netted less than SUSSOO ($800), the police said. Two more employees were wounded in the robbery, in which the killers used up all their bullets, took some from the body of a security guard and kept shooting, they said. The two escaped with less than SUSSOO, police said.—St Louis Drug survey More than three million Australians have smoked marijuana at some time in their lives, according to a Morgan Gallup poll. The figures were projected from a survey of 1203 men and women in Australia. Forty-eight per cent of those aged 25 to 34 admitted to smoking the illegal drug, with 33 per cent of the 14-24 age group saying they had tried it.—Sydney. Tragic mistake An Australian missionary shot dead in Sri Lanka was the victim of a tragic mistake by Tamil terrorists, a church official said. Rohan Tissanayeke, aged 43, a minister of the Church of the Assembly of God, was on his way to a prayer meeting in Jaffna town when gunmen sprayed his van with bullets, killing all four occupants of the vehicle.—Sydney.