Cable briefs

Press, 4 April 1989, Page 8

Cable briefs

Tunisians turn out The Tunisian Government, reporting a massive turn-out in elections on Sunday, said the ruling Democratic Constitutional Union won the first eight seats declared yesterday with large majorities. The Interior Ministry said 85.9 per cent of the electorate voted in the electoral districts where counting in the parliamentary elections was complete. In the presidential poll, where President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was standing unopposed, it said 82 per cent voted in the first electoral districts to send in complete returns.—Tunis. Whale meat seized A Japanese fish carrier was seized off a southern Japanese island after it was found carrying 30 tonnes of whale meat allegedly bought from pirate whalers in Taiwan, officials said yesterday. Maritime Safety Agency officials said the 70-tonne No. 1 Yutaka Maru was stopped and seized on Sunday off Ishigaki-jima Island, between Taiwan and Okinawa island, by a Japanese patrol boat on suspicion of importing whale meat. —Naha, Japan. Harrods’ owner defiant The Egyptian-born businessman Mohammed alFayed said only God could take Britain’s top department store, Harrods, away from him. He was responding to a growing public campaign against a takeover by the Fayed brothers Ali and Mohammed four years ago of the House of Fraser, of which Harrods is the flagship. The campaign is led by Roland “Tiny” Rowland’s mining conglomerate, Lonhro. “I own the shop and nobody ever will be able to take it away, only God,” Fayed told reporters while hosting a children’s party at the store.—London. India A.I.D.S. scare India withdrew a variety of blood-based products from the market yesterday after some had been found to contain the A.I.D.S. virus. It appealed to anyone who might have taken them in the last two years to have themselves checked for A.I.D.S. A Government statement said some products, ranging from fresh frozen plasma to rabies and tetanus vaccines, had tested positive for H.I.V. antibodies.—New Delhi. Toxic cloud spreads A toxic cloud created by a massive fire at an oil terminal in war-ravaged Beirut was spreading yesterday to threaten Israel, Syria and Cyprus, Israeli experts said. The experts, cited by Voice of Israel radio, said the cloud created by the explosion of a million-litre butane tank on Thursday and fuelled by continuing fires at the terminal was 20km long and 7km wide. Fall-out from the cloud could cause lung or skin cancer, said the experts. The Israeli Health Ministry and meteorological officials were monitoring the progress of the cloud and had made preparations in case it reached Israel.—Jerusalem.