WE must be grateful for small mercies — but not too grateful to those who released more than 500 tonnes of water per second close to midnight last Thursday when most people were in bed and business owners, already trying to cope with a battered economy, had left their premises unaware that the ESB, in its wisdom, had decided to lower the water level in the Inniscarra dam as the witching-hour of midnight approached.

MORE than 10,000 people — many of them foreign tourists — were evacuated from six camping grounds on the French Riviera as an intense forest fire driven by high winds advanced on their tents and caravans.

FIREFIGHTERS battled to control forest fires sweeping through southern France that have killed four people and forced thousands to flee their homes, as President Jacques Chirac promised tough penalties for arsonists.

Two British tourists were believed to be among three people killed in forest fires in southern France today that police said were started deliberately.

French judicial officials have launched an investigation after a 62-year-old woman gave birth using her brother’s sperm and a donor egg from an American woman.