Cable briefs

Press, 5 March 1988, Page 10

Cable briefs

1 i | ' ■ I Hostage freed , West Ralph ! Schray, remained | out of ( sight in! Damascus one j day after he was freed in( Lebanonj by 'kidnappers! Who have been pressing Bonn to release two ■ Shi’ite Muslims accused of I hijacking an aircraft and! abduction. Mr Schray, son 1 of a Lebanese (mother and! a West ( German father,) was freed by I his captors at dawn into the custody! of Syrian military officials who drove j him to ! Damascus.—Beirut. Union man killed A gang of masked men beat a Japanese railway union official to death with crowbars, attacking him while he lay sleeping next to his wife, the police said. Masaru Matsushita', chairman of. the Labour Union of the! East Japan Railway! Company, was killed by seven or eight men: wearing ski mask? and helmets.—Tokyo. Tourists warned \ The Australian Foreign Affairs j Department has warned j Australians not to travel to Iran or Iraq unless it is essential. Iran and Iraq have both renewed missile and bombing attacks on each other's capitals after a lull in the -eight-year Gulf War!—Canberra. U.N. ready The | United Nations General Assembly • j. is ready ! to reconvene at short notice if the United

States defies a call by the world body not to close down the Palestine Liberation ( Organisation’s U.N. mission. By a vote of 143 to one, with only Israel opposed, the Assembly said on Wednesday that implementation of a United States “antiterrorist act” ' ordering closure of) the! office by March 21, would violate a 1947 agreement establishing the United Nations headquarters !in New York.—New York. Suharto’s backing Indonesia’s powerful State Secretary, Sudharmono, is expected to be! the nation’s next VicePresident after President Suharto indicated his nomination was acceptable. Sudharmono, 61, whose job as “gatekeeper” for the President over the last 15 years has kept him close to Mr Suharto, was i nominated by the dominant ruling party Golkar, of which he is chairman, as well as regional ! representatives in the People’s Consultative Assembly.—Jakarta, Crash killed 20

Twenty! people died when a Soviet passenger plane crashed in the West Siberian oil city of Surgut, the weekly j “Moscow News” reported. Thirteen people are still in critical condition! after Saturday’s crash, it said,) quoting the chief doctor of a hospital in the regional capital, Tyumen.—Moscow.

Australian

presence

The Australian Foreign Minister, Bill Hayden) said Australia wohld {lose its voice in South Africa if it heeded calls toj yithp draw diplomatic |recogni--tion. Mr Hayden said Australia would not be able to go in and make) com!plaints “as we regularly do” on human rights! and the treatment of blacks and Coloureds if ■ there were no diplomat c ties — Sydney.

‘Threat checked’ | Political changes tinder President Corazori Aquino have drastically j reduced the spread of tommunism in the Philippines, a United States official'said. The Assistant Secretary of Defence, Richard i Armitage, said he had i told a United States Seriate ,Committee in 1985 that tlie 19year insurgency ' was growing 20 perj ,cent a year. However, successful communist recruiting had “stagnated” over the past two years. Mr Armitage said people paid less attention to communist rebels now because ]of healthy economic growth, greater popular] political participation and the military’s increasing respect for’ the new Constitution.—Manila. I Test J The Malaysian Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Mahathir Mohamad faces the first test of |his popularity since his crackdown

on dissidents and a crisis’ within his party in a state,' by-election today. Malays, who form 51 per cent of the voters in Tanjong Puteri on the southern tip of Peninsula Malaysia, are split between MrMahathir and leaders he purged during a party crisis in early February, constituents said. —Johor Baru. Fiji loan The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation has offered to arrange a 8NZ20.35. million loan for the Fiji Government, the Finance Minister, Josefata Kamikamica, said. A statement issued through the Ministry of Information described the offer as “the first positive response” from various overseas and domestic banks to the Reserve Bank of Fiji’s efforts to secure loans. The terms of the Hong Kong-Shanghai loan offer were being discussed and in the meantime, other banks were being approached, the Minister said.—Suva. Minister charged A Rome magistrate has ordered a Government Minister and 11 other people to stand trial on charges of fraud for allegedly misusing funds supplied for State health cafe, judicial officials said. The charges against the Scienitific Research Minister, Antonio Ruberti, relate to a period when he was rector of Rome University in 1980. The 11

others ordered to stand trial with Ruberti were mostly clinic | directors and doctors. — Rome.

Djilas in print

A Yugoslav newspaper has published a short story by leading dissident, Milovan Djilas, for the first time in 34 years. The weekly literary newspaper “Knjizevne Novine,” an organ of the Serbian Writers’ Union, published Djilas’s story “War" — about the horrors of war — in its 40th anniverary issue. Djilas, aged 76, once a close aide of late Yugoslav leader, Josip Broz Tito, fell into disgrace in 1954. — Belgrade. Prices up Fiji’s consumer price index rose a| record 2.7 per cent last month to boost the annual inflation rate to seven per cent, the Bureau of Statistics said. Living costs have soared in Fiji since! the first military coup! last May with the price of imported goods reflectfng a 33 per cent devaluation of the Fiji dollar. —| Suva. Intimidation admitted A Fijian ! lawyer has pleaded guilty to a charge of criminal intimidation over an incident at Radio Fiji’s studios in January. Kitione Vuetaki, aged 40, was arrested with two others after demanding air time to announce that they were taking over the country. — Suva.