Cable briefs

Press, 1 December 1988, Page 8

Cable briefs

‘Marcos fit’ A doctor appointed by the United States Government has declared the former Philippine President; Ferdinand Marcos, well enough to travel to New York to face arraignment on racketeering charges, a spokesman for Marcos said. — Honolulu. Mitchell elected Senator George Mitchell, elected majority leader in the Senate by fellow Democrats, is signalling compromise rather than confrontation in dealing with Presidentelect BUsh and the Republicans in Congress. “We look forward to working with a new President and a new administration,” Mr Mitchell said after he was elected majority leader — a post that makes him one of the most powerful Democrats. — Washington. 110-day isolation A French woman, aged 32, emerged from a dark cavern in south-west France after a record 110-day experiment to test the effects of total isolation on the human body. A potholer, Veronique Le Guen, so lost her sense of time that she thought she had another month to go when her surface back-up team told her at the week-end it was time to come out into the daylight of the Causses mountains.

Scientists said she had settled into a rhythm of 20 hours asleep and 30 hours awake during the experiment, which broke the record for voluntary underground isolation by three weeks. — Toulouse. Tough choice Israel’s Labour Party is agonising over joining the Rightist Likud bloc in another national unity Government, with opinion divided as to whether such a move will save the nation or kill the party. Labour leaders predict a stormy debate when the 110-member party executive bureau meets today to vote on whether to resume talks with Likud, which won a slight edge in the inconclusive November 1 General Election. — Jerusalem. Apartheid vote A second South African town, dominated by far-Right-wing white conservatives, has resolved to ban blacks from municipal parks, public toilets and sports facilities, Staterun television news reported. The council of Brakpan, in Transvaal province east of Johannesburg, decided unanimously to follow the lead set last week by Boksburg, another largely blue-col-lar Transvaal town, and return to old-style rigid apartheid. — Johannesburg.