Briefs

Press, 22 July 1989, Page 11

Briefs

S3B bid for Olympics Greece, the birthplace of the Olympic Games about 3500 years ago, will spend about SUS2 billion ($3.43 billion) in a bid to stage the centennial of the modern Games in Athens in 1996. The Greek Government said it had approved a budget to build facilities, improve roads and telecommunications and bolster security services. The other candidates for staging the games are Atlanta (United States), Toronto (Canada), Melbourne (Australia), Manchester (Britain) and Belgrade (Yugoslavia). The choice will be made in Tokyo in September 1990 by the International Olympic Commit-tee.—NZPA-Reuter. Sleepwalker cleared A man was found not guilty of beating up his girlfriend — because he was sleepwalking at the time. Barry Burgess, aged 34, of Kingswood, Bristol, smashed Katrina Curtis over the head with a vodka bottle and a video recorder after they both dozed off while watching a horror video. The judge told Burgess at the Bristol Crown Court: “You were acting in a sleepwalking capacity. A disease of the mind.” Burgess denied wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and an alternative malicious wounding charge, on June 2 last year. The jury unanimously found him not guilty by reason of insanity. Burgess is to be admitted to a special hospital.—NZPA-AP. Harry Worth dies A British comedian, Harry Worth, has died, aged 71, after a long battle against cancer. His wife Kay, whom he met during a panto season in 1947 and married a few months later, was at his bedside at the family home. The bumbling comedian, famous for the opening scene of his popular television series in which he stood at the corner of a shop window and lifted an 'arm and leg in the air, had been confined to a wheelchair for some time. He had been suffering from cancer of the spine.—NZPA-AP. Schumann record The only known autographed manuscript of the only completed piano concerto written by Robert Schumann is expected to fetch between £600,000 and £1 million when it is auctioned at Sotheby’s in London in November. Schumann took four years to compose the Piano Concerto in A Minor, considered to be one of the greatest piano concertos of the 19th century. He wrote it for his wife, Clara Wieck, a virtuoso pianist. The manuscript which is being sent for sale anonymously from a private European collection, was signed and dated by the composer in 1845. —NZPA. Argentina reduces debt Argentina has paid back SUS4O million ($68.61 million) in debt arrears to the International Monetary Fund and plans to eliminate arrears to the InterAmerican Development Bank and the World Bank, the Argentine Foreign Minister said yesterday.—NZPAReuter.