Cable briefs

Press, 17 October 1986, Page 6

Cable briefs

Dead cert A dead and stuffed hamster named Gumble has won a pet competition in southern England. Jeanette Birch, aged 17, accepted the award for Gumble and said: “There was nothing in the rules to say that the pets had to be alive.” She had her beloved hamster stuffed after he died earlier this year. The competition judge, Christopher Henwood, commented: “I knew something was wrong when I saw Gumble sitting as quiet as a mouse.” —Dawlish, England. Sport Aid success Sport Aid, a world-wide series of athletic events held in May, raised £32 million ($9O million) for African famine relief, says the organiser, Bob Geldof. The event, culminating in the Race Against Time run by more than 10 million people in 300 countries, was originally expected to raise £5 million.—London.

Everest flight A United States daredevil, Steve McKinney, says he jumped off Mount Everest on a hang-glider and soared to a perfect landing at 5700 m. McKinney said from Lhasa, Tibet, that he made the first hang-glider flight from the 8700 m Everest on October 5, circling half way around the mountain. He did not say how far up the mountain he was when he Launched himself from the icy West Ridge;— Peking. Britons ailing The incidence of heart attacks in Britain has risen 14 per cent in 10 years, and there was a leap of 91 per cent in high blood pressure sufferers. The Office of Population, Censuses and Surveys published figures showing that in the decade since the last national morbidity study in 1971-2, the number of people visiting doctors for any kind of illness had risen from 663 to 712 a thousand.—London.