tribuneindia...Spotlight

			Monday, August 10, 1998
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Pak to test-fire Shaheen
ISLAMABAD, Aug 9 (PTI) — Pakistan is set to test-fire its medium range Shaheen missile any time as all preparations have been completed, media reports said today. "We can conduct the first test-fire of the Shaheen missile any time, but it depends on the decision of the government to carry out the test," technical director of Pakistan’s Atomic Energy Commission Samar Mubarakmand told The News. Mubarakmand, considered to be one of the top architects of the nuclear tests conducted in May, said the 750-km range missile with a payload of 1,000 kg was indigenously built.
Arms inspections
BAGHDAD, Aug 9 (Reuters) — The UN Special Commission (UNSCOM) has suspended arms inspections of new sites in Iraq after Baghdad’s decision to halt cooperation with UN arms inspectors, a UN official said today. But UNSCOM experts overseeing the disarmament of Iraq would continue to monitor sites already identified by inspectors, Janet Sullivan, special assistant to the director of the UN Baghdad Ongoing Monitoring and Verification Centre, told Reuters. "Inspection in respect of the commission’s disarmament responsibility are temporarily suspended," Mr Sullivan said.

5 killed in MCC attack
PATNA, Aug 9 (PTI) — Five persons were killed by members of the outlawed Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) at Lohara village in Kaimur district today, police said. According to the Director-General of Police control room, activists of the outfit raided the village in the early hours and shot dead five persons while they were asleep. Land dispute was stated to be the cause behind the killing, the sources said.
12 die in encounter
HYDERABAD, Aug 9 (UNI) — At least nine extremists of the banned People’s War Group and three policemen were killed in a fierce encounter in the dense forests in Kuppaguda on the Andhra Pradesh-Orissa border, today. The exchange of fire between the extremists and the police belonging to the two states, which began in the early hours, was still continuing, a top police official told UNI over telephone from Vizianagaram district.
Hijacking
MOSCOW, Aug 9 (Reuters) — Russia’s Interfax news agency said some passengers of a Tu-154 plane hijacked today in Moscow’s Domodedov airport had not been freed despite earlier statements by officials. Interfax quoted Domodedov security chief Alexander Sopov as saying one or more hijackers freed women and children but were still holding up to 70 men. A police official said earlier all passengers had been freed. Officials were, however, not available for comments.
Delhi police
NEW DELHI, Aug 9 (UNI) — The Delhi Government today announced that the Delhi police had been brought within the purview of the Public Grievances Commission for effective redressal of public complaints. The Directorate of Information and Publicity of the Delhi Government said any person could now make a complaint through an application giving special details of the grievance against any officer or official of the Delhi police at the office of the commission.
KPCC rejects Cauvery pact
BANGALORE, Aug 9 (PTI) — The Congress in Karnataka today rejected the settlement reached on the Cauvery water dispute and threatened to launch an agitation if state Chief Minister J.H. Patel did not withdraw his consent to the pact or resign from the office. Mr Patel has ‘betrayed’ the state’s interests by agreeing to implement the 1991 interim award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal under which Karnataka was to release 205 TMC feet of water to Tamil Nadu in a water year, senior Congress leaders told reporters here.
Ramakrishna monk ill
CALCUTTA, Aug 9 (PTI) — The condition of the president of Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, Swami Bhuteshananda, continued to remain critical today, according to a bulletin issued by the mission this evening. It said that the 97-year-old monk was on life support system under the supervision of a team of specialists at Kothari Medical Centre here.
14 die in encounter
HYDERABAD, Aug 9 (UNI) — Fourteen persons including 11 Naxalites and three police personnel, were killed in exchange of fire, while Naxalites blasted the office building and godown of a state owned sugar factory in separate incidents in Andhra Pradesh since yesterday. The banned People’s War Group (PWG) suffered a major setback when nine extremists, including four dalam commanders, were killed in a fierce encounter in the dense forests off Tudesu village beyond Parvathipuram in Vizianagaram district on the Andhra Pradesh-Orissa border, which also claimed the lives of three commandos of the elite Greyhounds.