Word: nickell
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Thunderball spreads a treasury of wish-fulfilling fantasy over a nickel's worth of plot. The fantasy is the familiar amalgam of wholesale sex, comic-strip heroism, bogus glamour and James Bond (Sean Connery). The plot concerns Bond's new nemesis, Largo. As No. 2 man of Spectre, Largo masterminds a daring bombnap. He hijacks a Vulcan bomber aloft on a NATO training flight, sinks its atomic payload in the Atlantic near Nassau. Then, for an asking price of ?100 million, he promises not to obliterate Miami or a city of equal size...
...Treasury authorities say innocently that Le Nickel can indeed sell products to the U.S.-if it can prove that they contain no Cuban nickel. Actually, there is no scientific way of either proving or disproving where the nickel content of a finished product comes from-a fact that enables the French to claim everything without being able to prove anything conclusively. At week's end, U.S. customs officials released one of the impounded shipments because it was destined for a defense plant, but the customs inspectors have orders to be hard-nosed about stopping French imports containing nickel. France...
Proof & Protests. The French contend that they were forced into the Cuban deal almost by an act of God. Le Nickel's main mines are in far-off New Caledonia, but a drought there cut the necessary supply of hydroelectric power and forced the company to look elsewhere for nickel oxide. Before turning to Castro, they tried to buy supplies from the 166,761-ton U.S. Government nickel stockpile, but Washington turned them down. Authorities of both Le Nickel and the French government buzz that the U.S. has another, more devious reason for boycotting Le Nickel: early this year...
Washington says that it has banned Le Nickel products from the U.S. because the company made a deal in July to buy 33 million Ibs. of nickel oxide from Castro's Cuba. The ban is based on the U.S. law prohibiting imports of products made from Cuban materials. Compounding the affront to the U.S. is the fact that Le Nickel agreed to purchase its nickel oxide from Cuba's Nicaro plant, a rich source that had been owned by the U.S. Government and operated by National Lead Co. until Castro expropriated...
...Nickel is backed by some powerful forces. While the Cuban deal was being negotiated, the company's boss was Chairman Rene Mayer, who retired to the post of honorary chairman in January. The company is subsidized by the French government and controlled by the French Rothschilds, who are particularly close to Prime Minister Georges Pompidou, formerly the chief aide to Guy de Rothschild. Last month Guy de Rothschild and his brothers, owners of 10.6% of Le Nickel through several companies, carried out a complex exchange of stock to give them firmer control...