Fishy fighter

Agan (Minnesota), Feb. 1 (AP): A smoke alarm summoned firefighters to a school in the middle of the night, but when they arrived the flames already had been put out. A fish named Dory took care of it.

Dory is kept in a vase on a desk in a classroom at Trinity Lone Oak Lutheran School. A forgotten candle started a small fire on the desk on January 24, setting off the smoke alarm and shattering the fish bowl, spilling enough water to put out the flames. Firefighters found a few embers still glowing on the desk — and Dory still alive in a puddle. “It was certainly looking distinctly unhappy,” firefighter Al Taylor said of the fish.

Firefighters put Dory in a new container, and now children in the primary school class are excited about their little hero.

Boxer beauty

Rust (Germany), (AFP): A 24-year-old fitness trainer and hobby boxer was voted Miss Germany in a gala ceremony and will represent her country at the Miss World contest in China later this year. Claudia Hein, a brunette who is also a sometime actress, was the oldest contestant in the competition held on Saturday in Rust, southwest Germany. The contest had its almost obligatory moment of controversy when Miss East Germany was expelled just before the final for posing nude for a glossy men’s magazine. Hein said she was “unbelievably happy. I still can’t quite believe it.”

Camera case

Los Angeles (Reuters): Major news organizations asked a judge to allow cameras into a court appearance by Michael Jackson on molestation charges, saying that a wild spectacle surrounding a prior hearing should be countered by images of orderly proceedings. But it was not immediately clear how Santa Barbara Superior Court Judge Rodney Melville would handle the request. Hundreds of fans gathered outside a courthouse in Santa Maria, California, for Jackson’s arraignment on January 16 and were driven into a frenzy when the 45-year-old entertainer climbed on top of his sports utility vehicle to dance and wave.