Marines Join Firefighters Battling Blazes in West

THE Marines joined the war against wildfires raging across the West yesterday, camping in a smoke-filled valley near Entiat, Wash., to help battle the biggest blaze. The first of 1,100 Marines from California's Camp Pendleton arrived Sunday. They were welcome relief to 2,775 firefighters trying to choke off a 90,900-acre fire burning in the eastern Cascade Range.

A second battalion of about 550 Marines was scheduled to reach camp today. And 1,000 soldiers in two Army battalions from Fort Hood, Texas, are expected to join firefighters in Idaho and Montana tomorrow. The military was called in by federal officials who have exhausted their supply of state and federal firefighters. More than 14,000 firefighters are battling 26 major fires in eight Western states, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho. Serious drought and record high temperatures across the West have helped fan the blazes. US Marshals guard abortion clinics

FOLLOWING a double murder Friday at an abortion clinic in Pensacola, Fla., by an anti-abortion protestor, it was expected that United States Marshals would be posted at some abortion clinics in the US. Eleanor Smeal, founder of the Feminist Majority and former president of the National Organization for Women, has called for federal protection for clinics. The director of the clinic in Pensacola vowed it would remain open.