Cable briefs

Press, 29 April 1981, Page 8

Cable briefs

Blaze kills 13 At least 13 people died in a restaurant fire in the Polish Baltic city of Szczecin, where the heat was so intense it melted nearby road signs, the official Pap news agency has said. Rescue teams were searching for more victims hours after the blaze gutted the three-storey Kaskada (Cascade) Restaurant. Pap said that employees were trapped on the top floor and rescue attempts were difficult because the restaurant's gas supply, which could only be switched off from the inside, fuelled the flames.— Warsaw. Jail riot quelled Prisoners seized 12 guards and knifed a fellow inmate to death at the Fossombrone top-security jail near Pesaro yesterday, the police said. Paramilitary police cordoned off the jail and the rebellious ■prisoners surrendered after several hours of negotiations with prison officials, releasing their hostages. The police said Giovanni Chisena, serving a life sentence for kidnapping and possession of arms, was killed probably as the result of a grudge.— Pesaro, Italy. $ Atlanta body Members of the special Atlanta police task force investigating the murder of 25 young blacks have been called... in after yet another body. was discovered in the Chattahoochee River, northwest of Atlanta. The body was later identified as that of Jimmy Ray Payne, aged 21. All the victims in the killings have been youngsters or people who appeared young.—Atlanta.

Teheran fighting Street battles broke out on the fringes of a mass demonstration in Teheran yesterday, and hospital sources said that at least one man was shot dead and four were wounded. Eye-witnesses said Revolutionary Guards fired repeatedly over the heads of the crowd to quell running clashes between rival groups of stone-throwing youths supporting the semi-clandestine radical Mujahideen-E-Khalq guerrilla organisation and pro-Government Islamic extremists.—Teheran. Plane ‘sabotaged’ Indian authorities have uncovered an attempt to sabotage the Air India Boeing by which the Prime Minister (Mrs Indira Gandhi) was scheduled to leave on May 5 for official visits to Switzerland, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates, the Interior Minister (Mr Zail Singh) has told Parliament. Mr Singh said the plane had its four vital cable systems affected after a final check-up on April 20. This could not have been due to “normal causes” but intentionally done so as to prevent their detection, Mr Singh said.—New Delhi. Shuttle journey The space shuttle Columbia, riding atop a jumbo jetliner, landed at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma before a crowd of 200,000 for an overnight stop before flying on to Florida, where its journey as the first reusable space craft began. Once back at the Kennedy space Centre at Cape Canaveral, where it was launched on its maiden space flight on April 12. the spacecraft will be refitted for a new trip in November.—Oklahoma City.