| 'India-made' Viagra on sale LONDON, Aug 3 (Reuters) —
Spurious pills of the impotence drug Viagra are being
manufactured in India and Thailand and sold around the
world via the Internet, according to a British television
report today.Criminals are set to make millions of pounds
selling the pills, which contain little or no Viagra,
independent television’s "World in Action"
programme reported.
"Our research
indicates that professional counterfeiters have turned
their attention to Viagra," said Mr Peter Lowe,
Assistant Director of Britain’s counterfeit
intelligence bureau. Mr Lowe said the fake versions of
the drug, which were relatively easy to manufacture,
contain either a below-strength active ingredient or none
at all.
The illegal trade in
Viagra, made by US drug firm Pfizer Inc, hit the
headlines in Britain on Friday when the police
confiscated an illegal hoard being sold on the black
market from an unlicenced sex shop in central London. The
police seized around 60 pills in total. The shop was
charging £ 40 for the diamond-shaped pill, which sells
for a fraction of that amount in the USA.
Flash floods
SEOUL, Aug 3
(AFP) — Flash floods have left some 100 persons dead
or missing around South Korea’s popular Mount Chiri
resort, officials said today, as thousands of
rescuer’s scoured the area. The Central Disaster
Agency (CDA) said 35 bodies had been recovered since
early Saturday, but some 60 persons were still listed as
missing, despite a massive rescue operation. Television
reports said some 120 people were feared dead or missing.
HC seeks report
NEW DELHI,
Aug 3 (PTI) — The Delhi High Court today asked the
CBSE to place before it by September 15 the report of a
special committee appointed by the board to assess the
process of verification of marks in its examinations. A
division Bench, comprising justice Y.K. Sabharwal and
Justice K.S. Gupta also directed the petitioners
All-India Lawyers Union (AILU) to file rejoinder to the
CBSE affidavit.
JMM MPs case
NEW DELHI, Aug 3 (PTI) — The Delhi High Court today
issued notice to the CBI on a petition seeking summoning
of former Congress president Sitaram Kesri as a
co-accused in the JMM MPs bribery case. The notice was
issued by Justice J.B. Goel on the review petition of
Abhey Pratap Singh, one of the 20 accused in the bribery
case, against the trial court’s earlier order
dismissing his application. The notice is returnable by
October 30.
Heroin seized
NEW DELHI,
Aug 3 (UNI) — Revenue intelligence officials here
have seized Rs 17 crore worth of heroin smuggled in from
Pakistan. Mr Jogendra Singh, Additional Director General
of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, told reporters
that the narcotic weighing 17 kg was recovered from a
truck intercepted on a highway here last night. The truck
owner, Angrez Singh from Ferozepur in Punjab, was also
arrested.
Gunman held
BAGHDAD, Aug
3 (AFP) —The Iraqi police has arrested the gunman
who tried to assassinate Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's
son Uday in December 1996, the official INA agency said
today. The agency said it would broadcast today "an
imported statement from the Department of General
Security, which reveals the circumstances of the criminal
operation perpetrated against Uday Saddam Hussein on
December 12, 1996" in Baghdad. Mr Uday, who is now
34-year-old was badly wounded in the legs when his car
was peppered with bullets during an ambush in Baghdad.
Army man remanded
NEW DELHI,
Aug 3 (PTI) — A Delhi court today remanded a retired
army official in 14-day judicial custody in connection
with a cheating case in which he along with another
retired army official had allegedly defrauded the Defence
Ministry of over Rs 10 crore during 1994-97. Special
Judge Ajit Bharihoke remanded Col (retd) P.S. Rao in
judicial custody after he was interrogated by the CBI.
The other accused in the case, retd Capt Inder Bir Singh
Uppal, was arrested by the CBI on July 28 during Rao's
interrogation.
Diana's bodyguard
LONDON, Aug 3
(Reuters) — The bodyguard who survived Princess
Diana's fatal car crash pleaded today for privacy to
grieve in peace over the first anniversary of the
tragedy. Mr Treover Rees-Jones, still bearing the mental
and physical scars of the horrific crash said "let
us mark this tragic anniversary in our own way."
"I want everyone to appreciate that August will be a
very difficult time for myself, my family and for all the
families involved in this tragic accident," he said
in a television interview.
14 feared drowned
DARBHANGA
(Bihar), Aug 3 (PTI) — Fourteen people were feared
drowned when a boat capsized midstream in the swollen
Kareh river off Hayaghat in Bihar’s Darbhanga
district today, official sources said. The sources told
PTI that five bodies had so far been fished out. In all
35 persons were travelling in the boat, of whom 21 were
either rescued by the villagers or swam to safety.
Coalition returns
THE HAGUE,
Aug 3 (AFP) — A new cabinet was officially sworn in
by Queen Beatrix, bringing to an end the protracted
process of forming a government in the Netherlands. A
three-party coalition is set to pick up the reigns of
this small European country for another four-year
mandate. During the May 6 elections, voters widely
endorsed the past performance of the unlikely coalition
between Left-wing Labour, the right-wing Liberal VVD
Party and the Centre-Left formation, D66. Together, the
three parties hold a resounding majority with a total of
97 deputies in the 150-seat Parliament.
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