Cable briefs

Press, 24 March 1984, Page 10

Cable briefs

Plane fire

A Pacific Western Airlines Boeing 737 caught fire as it neared take-off from Calgary airport, but all 119 passengers and crew escaped after the pilot halted the aircraft. Twenty-nine people suffered minor injuries ranging from facial burns to slight smoke inhalation as they left using emergency slides. — Calgary. Sword man A man was arrested by the police outside the White House after he pulled what appeared to be a samurai sword from its scabbard and waved it in the air. The man, identified by the Secret Service as Anthony Leon Hilbert, aged 22, of Glen Arden, Maryland, drove his car up to the north-west White House gate on Pennsylvania Avenue, climbed out and walked towards the iron White House fence. — Washington.

Troops mobilised

Iran has mobilised up to one million regular troops, Revolutionary Guards, and volunteers for what could be the biggest offensive so far in the Persian Gulf war, Iranian officials and foreign diplomats said. Iranian officials said privately that a million men were on standby at key points along the 185 km front with Iran, about half of them from the Basij (Mobilisation) Volunteer Force, for what they called an "imminent offensive.” — Teheran. Top woman A woman, aged 40, has beaten six men by an overwhelming majority to become the general secretary of Britain’s biggest print union, Sogat ’B2 (Society of Graphical and Allied Trades). Brenda Dean, who became president of the union only six months ago, received almost double the votes of her nearest rival. — London.