Cable briefs

Press, 17 June 1988, Page 6

Cable briefs

Fraud probe Under orders from President Reagan, the Justice Department is pressing ahead with a big investigation of alleged fraud and bribery in United States military contracts. White House officials said Mr Reagan did. not know about the two-year nationwide probe until raids were conducted on Tuesday to collect evidence at the Pentagon and offices of more than a dozen defence firms around America.—Washington. Ethics inquiry President Reagan has plunged into the ethics controversy engulfing Jim Wright, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, by urging an independent counsel investigate America’s top Democratic official. Mr Wright, leader of Reagan’s political opposition, faces a House ethics committee inquiry of charges that publication of his book, "Reflections of a Common Man,” was' a scheme to divert campaign funds to the speaker’s personal use.— Washington. Devastating drought American farmers are being confronted by a drought that could be devastating for agricul-

ture and a serious blow to the nation, according to Vice-President George Bush. “If the drought continues, it would be a devastating tragedy for agriculture and a serious blow to the entire country,” Mr Bush said in a statement following a briefing on Wednesday with Agriculture Secretary Richard Lyng.— Washington. Ariane launched The successful launch of the new Ariane-4, the biggest rocket ever built by Europe, will stir up competition in the expanding world satellite launch market and help cut costs in the 19905, space officials say. The 480-tonne Ariane rocket, which was launched from the space centre at Kourou in French Guiana on Wednesday, followed a perfect trajectory out across the Atlantic before injecting three satellites into orbit high over Africa.—Paris. N. Korean denial North Korea denied charges made by the United States that it was stepping up its military presence near the South Korean border. The Armed ' Forces Ministry also said Washington had raised an unnecessary outcry over North Korea as a military threat. — Tokyo.

Cape Town blast An explosion rocked a Cape Town suburb, police said, and first reports said one person was killed. The blast, in the white district of Wynberg, occurred as Africans commemorated the twelfth anniversary of a bloody uprising in Soweto, the township outside Johannesburg.—Cape Town. Rightist threat Philippines military authorities placed troops on combat-ready status after new threats from Rightist renegades to attack camps and destabilise the Government of President Corazon Aquino.—Manila. Trafficker interviewed The Bolivian Government shut down a television station and a radio station that interviewed a leading drug trafficker who accused the Government of involvement in the cocaine trade. Carlos Palenque, owner of Channel Four and Radio Metropolitana in the Bolivian capital, held a talk show last week that included a convicted cocaine trafficker, Roberto Suarez Gomez. The United States Drug Enforcement Agency says Suarez Gomez is one of the top cocaine traffickers

in Bolivia.—La Paz. Rebels strike Leftist rebels dragged a United States agricultural adviser and a Peruvian colleague from their farm truck and fatally shot them, officials said.— Lima. Hijacking charge A man accused of hijacking a passenger jet to Cuba in 1983 was arrested when he arrived at Miami International Airport on a flight from Havana, the F. 8.1. said. Robert Patrick Richter, aged 31, an American, surrendered to F. 8.1. agents and was taken to a Miami jail to await a court hearing.— Miami. Drug plane crashes A plane carrying 784 kg of pure cocaine bound for the United States crashed in northern Mexico, killing three people. A military spokesman said the plane crashed in a desert about 1000 km north of the capital. The plane had come from the town of Gauimaral, Colombia. Witnesses told newspapers that would-be drug pirates attempted to reach the crash site, but torrential rains over the week-end prevented them. — Mexico City.