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Press, 27 July 1981, Page 8

Cable briefs

Huge oil slick

A 13km-long oil slick drifted down the River Elbe towards the North Sea yesterday after a tanker carrying 75,000 tonnes of Angolan crude ran aground. A team of 10 tugs refloated the 96.716-tonne Afran Zenith after several unsuccessful attempts. but oil continued to pour from a tank as the Liberian-registered vessel waited for high tide to dock. The slick, about 350 m wide, coated Hamburg's residential northern shore with a thick, black film and the stench of oil could be smelled over a wide area.—Hamburg. Sinatra in S.A.

Frank Sinatra opened a one-week cabaret show in the South African “homeland” of Bophuthatswana apparently unconcerned by the prospect of appearing on an anti-apartheid blacklist for performing in South Africa. Sinatra, who will receive $1.5 million for nine appearances, told reporters he had not considered the political implications of appearing in the $lOO million Sun City entertainment complex. Turning aside all political questions about South Africa, he said. “I don’t think I know enough about it," adding that he might also appear elsewhere in South Africa. — Sun City. Topsy-turvey A pilot flew the English Channel at the week-end — upside-down. Nigel Brandish, aged 31, a businessman of Essex, took off from Calais and when he reached Cap Gris Nez flipped over his specially converted Chipmnnir unH qljjvpH that WflV

until he reached Dover. He later landed at Southend. The 15-minute topsy-turvey flight, the first of its kind of the Channel, was made to raise money for muscular dystrophy. — London. Fire in hospital More than 300 patients were evacuated from wards, including the intensive-care unit, when fire broke out in St Bartholomew’s Hospital in the City of London early yesterday. The fire broke out in basement storerooms which link each block of the huge hospital. Dozens of firemen. some wearing breathing apparatus, tackled the, blaze in the basement of the hospital. The threat to patients was smoke from the fire. — London. Rock fall kills 6 Five young girl scouts and their camp monitor have been killed by a rock fall, the communal secretary of Altdorf in Switzerland has said. The six, all from Altdorf, were in a tent when falling rocks crushed it, the secretary said. — Zurich. Recession fear A top American Treasury official has said that high American interest rates were causing “massive damage" to the economy and added that a brief recession was possible. Treasury Undersecretary (Mrs Beryl Sprinkel) said a recession, or two consecutive quarters of decline in the nation's gross national product, was possible as all the forces pointing to weak economic activity were evident. — Washingtori