tribuneindia...Spotlight

			Friday, October 2, 1998
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Clinton to visit Japan, Korea
WASHINGTON, Oct 1 (AP) — U.S. President Bill Clinton has tentatively scheduled a visit to Japan and Korea late next month. Mr Clinton expects to make stops in Japan and Korea following the Asia Pacific Economic Conference meeting in Malaysia on November 17-18. He decided to make the visit after cancelling a long-planned trip to India and Pakistan because of those countries' nuclear policies. "As a result, we are exploring other destinations in the region," White House spokesman Mike McCurry said today.
Ravana Leela
CHENNAI, Oct 1 (UNI) — Twentysix Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam (PDK) volunteers, including former Tamil Nadu Minister Anoor Jagadeesan, were arrested for attempting to defy a ban and celebrate Ravana Leela by burning effigies of Ram and Lakshman here today. The police arrested the PDK volunteers at several locations in the city and seized the effigies from them. The PDK is demanding a ban on the performance of Ram Leela at Delhi annually in which the effigy of Ravana is burnt.

40 feared drowned
PATNA, Oct 1 (UNI) — At least 40 persons were feared drowned when an overcrowded boat carrying about 70 passengers capsized in the fast flowing Hargauli river in west Champaran district of Bihar tonight. Director-General of Police K.A. Jacob said the mishap occurred at around 7 p.m. when the people were returning home after the Durga Puja festivities at Narkatiagunj. About 30 persons swam to safety.
Farooq rules out separate homeland
HYDERABAD, Oct 1 (PTI) — Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah today categorically ruled out a separate homeland for Kashmiri Pandits. "It is not possible as long as I am alive", Mr Abdullah told reporters here. Pandits and Muslims are an integral part of Jammu and Kashmir and they have to live together and fight the terrorist designs of Pakistan jointly", he emphasised. He said Pandits had to come back to their homeland and added the government had also prepared several temples destroyed during the period of militancy.
Pak spy held
GURDASPUR, Oct 1 (PTI) — The Punjab police today claimed to have arrested a spy of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI). Gurdaspur SSP Gaurav Yadav told reporters here that the police, on specific information that one Amanual Masih, alias Manna, alias Chacha, of Dadwan village was working as an ISI spy and had been crossing the Indo-Pak border, laid a trap and arrested him. Photographs and maps of the Madhopur bridge, the Dhariwal mill and sensitive military and Air Force installations were recovered from his (Masih's) possession, he said.
20 feared drowned
DHAKA, Oct 1 (PTI) — At least 20 persons, including women and children, were feared drowned as a ferry boat capsized in the swirling waters of the Mogra in the northern Bangladesh, the police said here today. It said 14 bodies had been recovered since the mishap occurred in Netrokona district on Tuesday evening. The boat sank after it was caught in a whirlpool. The official BSS news agency said at least 150 were on board.
8 buried alive
LUCKNOW, Oct 1 (UNI) — Seven children and a woman, all of the same family, were buried alive when the mud wall of a house collapsed at Badhauna village in Rae Bareilly district yesterday. According to reports received at the Uttar Pradesh police headquarters here, the children were playing near their neighbour's house when its wall collapsed, burying all of them alive. The grandmother of the children, who was also present at the site, was also killed.
Civic official shot
KARACHI, Oct 1 (DPA) — Gunmen riding in a car shot dead a municipal officer in Karachi today, the latest in a series of brutal killings in Pakistan's largest and most violent city. The police said the killers fled after gunning down Mr Badar-ud-Duja, an official of the Land Department of the Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC), while he was on his way to his office. Mr Badar-ud-Duja was the fifth KMC officer to be killed by unknown gunmen in four weeks.
Drought in Rajasthan
JAIPUR, Oct 1 (UNI) — As many as 19,580 villages of Rajasthan, reeling under severe drought conditions, have been declared as "scarcity-hit" regions. A state Cabinet meeting, held here last evening under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, took the decision while reviewing the drought situation in the state. The Cabinet has decided to step up relief operations and provide employment to 87,900 drought-affected people.
Joginder Singh
NAGPUR, Oct 1 (PTI) — Former CBI chief Joginder Singh today said he was in favour of fixing the term for the Director of the agency. Mr Singh told reporters here no regular CBI Director had been appointed after he vacated the post. The former Director also said he favoured appointment of a retired Chief Justice of India as the Chief Vigilance Commissioner (CVC). The CVC should be debarred from holding any office of profit after relinquishing office, he said.