News In Brief

British hunt team says object from Suez Gulf is recent mine

British mine-hunters have confirmed that the 10-foot-long metal cylinder they found submerged in the Gulf of Suez two weeks ago was a mine, a British Embassy source said Monday. Until Sunday, British spokesmen had been calling the cylindrical device they found ''a minelike object'' and said it was placed in the water recently. They also said it was unlike any known mines in the arsenals of maritime nations in the West and East.

A French Embassy official, meanwhile, said French mine-hunters operating where the Gulf of Suez meets the main body of the Red Sea have detonated 10 mines dating to the 1973 Arab-Israeli war and not linked to recent explosions that damaged at least 19 ships since July 9.