Cable briefs

Press, 28 March 1983, Page 10

Cable briefs

Ambush fails Four youngsters were held prisoner by gunmen who lay in wait to ambush a policeman at Castlewellan, County Down. Three men opened fire on the officer as he left Castlewellan police station. A hail of bullets hit his car, but he escaped unhurt, said a Royal Ulster Constabulary spokesman. The gunmen had forced their way into a house opposite the police station and held two brothers and two sisters, aged between 12 and 19, prisoner while they waited. — Belfast. Dogged commuter A Welsh sheepdog with a good knowledge of inter-city bus time-tables hitched a ride from Cardiff to London and then back again. The black-and-white kelpie was first in the line for the Cardiff-London Express and scurried to the back of the bus when the door opened, reports the “Daily Mirror” newspaper. Inspector Ken Satterly though the dog be-

longed to an old lady, but when he found out the dog was a non-paying passenger, he tried to persuade him to get off the bus. The answer, despite the bribe of a biscuit, was a teeth-baring snarl. — London. Jumbo threat

Customs men in London are threatening to seize a British Airways jumbo jet unless the airline tightens up its security. They are so fed up with the airline’s attitude to drug smuggling that they are planning to impound a plane for up to a month, reports the “Daily Mirror” newspaper. — London. Drugs under sea A French court at Narbonne has jailed two drug traffickers for hiding three tonnes of cannabis under the sea, said judicial sources. Abraham Synders, who used to dump the cqnnabis resin, was sentenced to 10 years. A Spanish mechanic, Jose de Funes Gomez, received a sixyear term. — Narbonne.