a021  2356  17 Feb 80
PM-National Briefs,450
    PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - Supply companies will pay the families of 50
submarine workers more than $6 million in out-of-court settlements
for their asbestos-related lawsuits, the Providence Journal reports.
    The lawsuits charged that the workers either died of, or contracted,
serious diseases from asbestos exposure in the Electric Boat shipyard
in Groton, Conn. Workmen's compensation laws barred the workers from 
suing Electric Boat.
    The Electric Boat workers' suits are among an estimated 10,000
lawsuits nationwide that are seeking billions of dollars in damages
from asbestos firms, the paper said in its Sunday editions.
    ---
    NEW YORK (AP) - A petroleum expert says the United States must agree
with oil producing companies on rules for production levels and
pricing policies.
    ''There are fundamentally no accepted rules of conduct,'' said
Walter J. Levy, an oil expert who advises the U.S. government and oil
companies.
    The United States and its allies will need substantial quantities of
oil for at least 20 to 25 years while new sources of energy are
developed, Levy said Sunday on NBC's ''Meet the Press'' program.
    ---
Laserphoto NY10
    LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - Two downtown hotels slumped from the Little
Rock skyline in a matter of seconds in a sequence of carefully
planned explosions to make way for a $50 million convention center.
    Several hundred persons gathered along the banks of the Arkansas
River and on rooftops to watch the demolition Sunday of the Marion and
Grady Manning hotels.
    Both hotels had been familiar landmarks in Little Rock for more than
50 years. They had been closed for the last decade.
    ---
    PLYMOUTH, Mich. (AP) - Authorities are searching for the cause of an
explosion that touched off a fire and leveled a restored downtown
Plymouth building housing 11 small shops.
    Plymouth Fire Chief Roy Hall said the blaze that gutted the
three-story Penniman Avenue Shops began early Sunday morning when the
stores were closed. There were no injuries. A damage estimate was not
available.
    ''The fact that there was an explosion makes us consider everything,
but arson is not suspected,'' Hall said. Plymouth is 22 miles west of
Detroit.
    ---
    OLD LYME, Conn. (AP) - State police say they are investigating a
break-in and theft of silverware at Gov. Ella Grasso's summer home.
    The forced entry was discovered Sunday morning by a trooper assigned
to provide security for the governor, state police spokesman Adam
Berluti said. Silver flatware and serving dishes of undetermined value
were taken during the Saturday night break-in, he said.
    More than a dozen thefts of silverware have been reported in Old
Lyme since Thanksgiving, and the nearby towns of Essex, Lyme and
Killingworth also have been hit with a number of silver thefts,
Berluti said.
    
ap-ny-02-18 0255EST
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