In brief

Press, 23 May 1989, Page 10

In brief

Aust, will not sign Australia’s Federal Government decided yesterday not to sign the Antarctic Minerals Convention and to push instead for an Antarctic Wilderness Park. The Prime Minister, Mr Bob Hawke, who announced the Cabinet decision at a news conference, said it would be hard to persuade the rest of the world to accept a complete ban on mining in the world’s last great wilderness.—Canberra. U.K., Soviet expulsions Britain has expelled 11 Soviet citizens after charges that the K.G.B. is stepping up espionage. The Foreign Secretary, Sir Geoffrey Howe, gave notice of a new hard line at a Munich defence forum four months ago. Despite the warmer climate of East-West relations, he said, K.G.B. intelligence and its military G.R.U. counterpart posed a renewed danger. The expulsion of the eight diplomats and three journalists and Moscow’s retaliation in ordering out a similar number of Britons now threatens to sour relations after the optimism of Mr Mikhail Gorbachev’s visit to Britain in April.— London. Bougainville ambush Eight employees of Papua New Guinea’s largest copper and gold mine were injured in an ambush yesterday, according to police who blamed militant landowners seeking the closing of the mine. Two people suffered bullet wounds and were in stable condition in hospital on Bougainville Island after four buses were sprayed with gunfire, said a spokesman for Bougainville Copper, owner of the mine which has been closed for a week.—Port Moresby. Mudslide deaths

At least 71 people died and 6000 were left homeless by mudslides that hit shantytowns in Brazil’s north-eastern city of Salvador after torrential rains. Salvador authorities said some bodies were still buried under mud.—Sao Paulo.