Cable briefs

Press, 3 August 1985, Page 10

Cable briefs

Fireman killed Forest fires raging round the fashionable French Riviera resort of Cannes have killed six firefighters since Thursday. About 1500 firefighters aided by 15 aircraft and taking advantage of lighter winds yesterday had managed to bring most of the outbreaks under control in southern France, a fire brigade spokesman said. Four firefighters, three of them volunteers, died when their truck caught fire overnight on Thursday, another died on Thursday and the sixth died yesterday. Three were taken to hospital suffering from bums. Holidaymakers fled as the fires ripped through a camping site at Mandelieu, near Cannes, and families were given emergency shelter by the local authorities. — Nice Forests destroyed Thousands of firemen, soldiers and civilians yesterday fought forest fires sweeping across several areas of Yugoslavia after a prolonged heat wave which also dried out many small rivers. Civil defence units were mobilised in the Dalmatian coastal region and 1000 men will sail today to the southern Adriatic island of Korcula, where houses, vineyards and pine woods have been destroyed, the national news agency, Tanjug, reported. Villagers were evacuated after woods caught fire near themorthem Adriatic resort of Pula. In Bastia, Cosica, thousands of acres of forests have been set ablaze. In the Valencia region of Spain, 24,000 ha have been burned in a week of fires. A Spanish soldier was killed fighting one of the fires on Tuesday, and two million pine trees have been destroyed. More than 2000 people, including 500 soldiers and 400 volunteers, have been tackling the outbreaks — Belgrade and Valencia. Dog-fighting call The British Government has been urged today to ban the importation of bull terriers from the United States as a step towards stamping out organised dog-fighting. A Conservative member of Parliament, Ms Janet Fookes, called on the Trade and Industry Secretary, Mr Norman Tebbit, to take such a step “as a matter of the utmost urgency.” Three men were jailed recently in the first case of organised dog-fighting to be prosecuted in Britain this century. The case generated a wave of public revulsion over dog-fighting after the display in court of videos showing terriers tearing away chunks of each other’s limbs. Bull terriers are trained in the United States to a high degree of ferocity and imported by illegal dog fight promoters. — London. ‘Miracle’ reported An Irish bishop has appealed for calm and caution after thousands of people flocked to a village in southern Ireland following reports that a statue of the Virgin Mary had moved. An estimated 8000 people gathered around the 1.5 m statute in Ballinspittle, County Cork, to observe what some villagers described as a miracle. After reports that a man, aged in his 40s had died while waiting at the grotto, Catholic Bishop Michael Murphy of Cork and Ross issued a statement saying all natural explanations would have to be examined before any definite pronouncement could be made. — Dublin.