The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Sunday, June 2, 2002, Chandigarh, India

THE TRIBUNE SPECIALS

50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE

TERCENTENARY CELEBRATIONS

M A I N N E W S

50 US Embassy families leave

Unidentified British tourists arrive at the New Delhi International Airport on Saturday to catch a plane out of the country. — Reuters photo

New Delhi, June 1
A batch of 50 non-essential staff members, including diplomats of the US Embassy and their dependents left for home today following Washington’s decision to move out such people because of rising danger of an Indo-Pak conflict.

“More non-emergency staff members of the US Embassy and their dependents are expected to leave in the next few days,” a US Embassy spokesman told PTI.

He, however, could not give the total number of staffers and their families who could be leaving the mission here and Consulates in Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai. “It is an individual and voluntary decision,” he said.

The spokesman said there had been a marked increase since Tuesday in the number of US nationals in India registering themselves with the embassy’s online service.

A British High Commission official, however, could not specify the number of people who could be leaving.

Alarmed by war clouds in the region the USA, Britain, Germany, Australia, Denmark, New Zealand and France have decided to reduce the levels of non-essential diplomatic staff and their families in India and advised their nationals against travelling to the region. The UN has also decided to move out families of members of international staffers. PTI

Hansie Cronje dies in plane crash

Johannesburg, June 1
Former South African cricket captain Hansie Cronje was killed in a plane crash in the country’s Western Cape province today, the country’s Sports Ministry said.

“He (Cronje) was killed. We can confirm that,” Mr Graham Abrahams, a spokesman for the Sports Ministry, told Reuters.

Cronje, 32, was banned from professional cricket for life in October 2000 for his role in a match-fixing scandal. He was banned after admitting he had accepted around $ 130,000 from bookmakers to influence the course of matches.

The disgraced cricketer’s brother, Mr Frans Cronje, earlier told Reuters the plane had crashed in bad weather. Reuters