M A I N   N E W S

Minister has ‘blood cancer’
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Aug 19 — For the eighth day in succession today there was no improvement in the condition of the Union Power Minister, Mr P.R. Kumaramangalam, even as a 10-member medical team constantly monitored his health at the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here.

“His (Mr Kumaramangalam’s) condition continues to be critical without any improvement,” the spokesman of AIIMS, Mr B.K. Dash, told The Tribune.

Mr Kumaramangalam has been diagnosed to be suffering from acute myeloid leukemia, a kind of blood cancer, doctors said tonight.

The 48-year-old minister, who was admitted to the ICU on Tuesday, remains critical with circulatory instability, disseminated intravascular coagulation and renal shutdown, AIIMS Medical Superintendent R. K. Sarma said.

“He has been diagnosed to be suffering from acute myeloid leukemia with fulminary sepsis,” Dr Sarma said. This was the first time that a diagnosis on Mr Kumaramangalam’s illness was made known.

Mr Kumaramangalam, who was admitted to the premier medical institute on Saturday last with multiple organ failure, continues to be on life support system.

Struggle for democracy to go on: Chaudhry

AGRA, Aug 19 (PTI) — Disposed Fijian Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry today said the struggle for restoration of democracy in the Pacific island nation would continue and expressed his happiness at the assurance given by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in this regard.

He told newsmen at the historic Taj Mahal here that democracy had been derailed in Fiji in 1987 and it took a full 10 years for it to be restored.