Cable briefs

Press, 23 September 1988, Page 8

Cable briefs

India’s view

India has criticised a draft constitution approved by the Government in Fiji as undemocratic and discriminatory. The External Affairs Ministry said "information available so far indicates that no effort has been made to give just and equitable representation to different communities in the proposed parliament.” The draft contained several provisions that were “undemocratic, discriminatory and detrimental to the interests of peace and stability and racial harmony” in Fiji, the statement said. — New Delhi. Biggs appeal The teenage son of the British train robber, Ronald Biggs, left for Britain to ask the Queen to pardon his father, who has lived in Brazil since escaping from a London jail in the 19605. Mike Biggs, aged 14, left for London carrying a letter addressed to the Queen asking for a pardon which Biggs hoped would allow him to spend his old age in Britain. Biggs, aged 59, was the alleged mastermind behind an assault on the Glasgow-London night mail train in 1963. — Rio de Janeiro. Little progress The United Nations is successfully reducing political conflicts but little is being done to narrow an economic gap between rich and poor States, the new president of the General Assembly said. Setting what seemed to be a theme for the threemonth session, Argentina’s Foreign Minister, Dante Caputo, called for a redressing of the "unfair” relationship between wealthy Northern Hemisphere States and the poor southern tier. — New York. Bhutto baby The Pakistani Opposition leader, Benazir Bhutto, has given birth to her first child, a 3.15 kg boy. — Karachi. Gun-control setback The United States House of Representatives, in a major defeat for guncontrol supporters, rejected a nationwide sevenday waiting period for handgun purchases. The 228-182 vote came after an emotional debate and strong lobbying by gun-

control opponents, led by the powerful National Rifle Association and supporters, including national law enforcement groups. The seven-day waiting period provision was named the Brady Amendment after the White House press secretary, James Brady, who was shot and seriously injured in the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan on March 31, 1981. — Washington. Pepsi deal India, which has long ■kept out multinationals making goods Indian firms can produce, will allow the American giant, Pepsi Cola, to set up a manufacturing plant in Punjab state, a Government spokesman said. The Janata Party, which expelled Pepsi’s rival, CocaCola, from India during its two years in office from 1977, said it would organise protests against the deal. — New Delhi. S.A. blasts

A bomb exploded in a crowded Johannesburg nightclub early yesterday injuring 19 people in the latest of five blasts which hurt nearly 40 people in eight hours, police said. Thirteen of the injured, who were all blacks, were taken to nearby hospitals for treatment. — Johannesburg. TV concern

The British Prime Minister, Mrs Margaret Thatcher, called for new broadcasting standards to keep cross-border television networks from bringing pornography and violence into people’s homes. She said she had agreed with the Luxemburg Prime Minister, Jacques Santer, that a new code of conduct was needed to maintain standards as burgeoning satellite broadcasting eroded national control over television. — Luxemburg. Apartheid

condemned Pope John Paul, who has recently made a trip to southern Africa, has called apartheid a violation of human dignity and Christianity. “The problem of racial segregation, apartheid, remains in clear conflict with the dignity of the human being, be it from the point of view of a common moral conscience or that of the Christian faith,” he said at his weekly general audience. — Vatican City.