tribuneindia...Spotlight

		Wednesday, October 21, 1998
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Onions' import
NEW DELHI, Oct 20 (PTI) — Delhi Chief Minister Sushma Swaraj today said that there was no violation of election code of conduct in the government's decision to import onion from Iran and Turkmenistan to meet the acute shortage in the Capital. She said the daily onion requirement of the Capital was around 400 metric tonnes and the total expenditure on its import was yet to be worked out. Chief Minister has said on Sunday that the state government had decided to airlift 400 tonnes of onions per day from these countries to ease its shortage in Delhi.
Mob attack
NAGPUR, Oct 20 (PTI) — A group of people today attacked Narkhed police station in Nagpur rural demanding immediate arrest of a person who allegedly raped a 28-year-old married woman yesterday. The police said one Dhanraj Tulsiram Dongre, 25, had assaulted the woman. This morning, activists of the Congress and the Shiv Sena, took out a morcha demanding immediate arrest of the alleged rapist and pelted stones at the station.
20 rebels killed
COTABATO (Philippines), Oct 20 (AFP) — At least 20 rebels and two soldiers were killed in two days of fierce fighting between the Philippine government troops and Muslim separatists, the military said today. Soldiers backed by Howitzers and two helicopter gunships battled the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) guerrillas in Maguindnao province, according to an army spokesman.
PM telephones Sharif
NEW DELHI, Oct 20 (PTI) — Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee today rang up his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif and expressed satisfaction over the Foreign Secretary-level talks which concluded in Islamabad on Sunday. The two Prime Ministers had a friendly conversation lasting 10 minutes and exchanged greetings and good wishes, official sources said.
N-espionage trial begins
ST PETERSBURG, Oct 20 (AFP) — The landmark trial of a Russian environmental activist accused of high treason for exposing the dangers caused by nuclear submarines opened today in St Petersburg. Alexander Nikitin, a retired navy Captain turned ecologist, faces charges of espionage and leaking state secrets for his probe into the environmental hazards posed by Russia’s northern-based submarine fleet. Outside the court, which is expected to deliberate for several weeks on the case, picketers held placards saying "the environment is not the KGB’s sphere," Interfax reported.
Notice to lawmakers
ISLAMABAD, Oct 20 (PTI) — The Supreme Court has issued show cause notices to 26 persons, including two MPs and four Punjab MLAs, belonging to the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML), for contempt of court in connection with the storming of the apex court. The persons served notices yesterday include Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Political Secretary Mushtaq Ali Tahir Kheli, MP Tariq Aziz and Punjab legislator and former hockey star Akhtar Rasool.
Builder shot dead
MUMBAI, Oct 20 (PTI) — Five armed persons today gunned down a city builder Syed Sohail Maqbool Rizvi at his office in Versova. The killing comes close on the heels of a shoot-out at Worli last night in which a member of Chota Shakeel gang was shot dead and his accomplice injured. The police said five unidentified assailants stormed into Rizvi’s office located on the ground floor at God’s Gift Tower on the Yari Road, at 11.30 a.m. and asked his friend to move out. They then fired at him and fled.
Poll boycott threat
JAKARTA, Oct 20 (DPA) — Residents of the Indonesian resort island of Bali are threatening to boycott a general election slated for next May unless President B.J. Habibie sacks a minister who they say insulted them and their Hindu religion, the official Antara news agency reported today. The agency said the Bali chapter of the state-sponsored Indonesian National Youth Committee in a statement threatened that if Mr Habibie failed to fire Food and Horticulture Minister A.M. Saefuddin, the people of Bali would boycott the implementation of the upcoming 1999 general election.

Lanka violence
COLOMBO, Oct 20 (PTI) — Four LTTE militants and two artistes were killed and 25 injured, in different incidents in Sri Lanka's North and East, defence sources said. Four LTTE militants were killed and five wounded in different encounters with the troops in the north, a defence press release here said. Two artistes were killed and 20 others injured in grenade explosions last night at a Divali musical programme at Karaithivu in the eastern Amparai district, army sources said.
‘Dad’ in trouble
TOKYO Oct 20 (AFP) — A 61-year-old Japanese has been arrested for suspected fraud after becoming the legal father of nearly 200 Thai children, a newspaper reported today. Police suspects Keichiro Mitomi was involved in a scam in which he received thousands of dollars from illegal Thai immigrants for adopting or claiming to father their children, said the Asahi newspaper. But Mitomi reportedly told the police that he was simply trying to get his name into the Guinness Book of World Record as the father with the most adopted children — a staggering 197.
Iguanas seized
MANILA, Oct 20 (Reuters) — Philippine officials have seized a shipment of 200 endangered iguanas imported from El Salvador after a tip-off from informants, the Environment Department said today. The green iguanas, or lizards, were inside a wooden cage when government environmentalists confiscated them at the weekend on their arrival at Manila airport, a department statement said.