tribuneindia...Spotlight

			Saturday, October 3, 1998
weather today's calendar

Air Canada resumes flights
NEW DELHI, Oct 2 (UNI) — Air Canada, which suspended its operation into India for four months as it thought it could not make money during the lean summer period, resumed its four-day-a-week service from yesterday with more emphasis on the business class traveller. "We missed not serving India and we are back with our premier aircraft, the A 340-300, ready to capture our share of the Indian market’’, the airline’s senior vice president, international, Douglas d’Port told newspersons here today. Mr Port admitted that the decision to pull out of India for four months to deploy the aircraft on more lucrative routes did not work out.
Naqvi injured
LUCKNOW, Oct 2 (PTI) — Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi today received minor injuries when his car was hit by a speeding truck near Gajraula, official reports said here. Mr Naqvi, who had come to Rampur to attend a function earlier in the day, later left for Delhi.
Starr's documents
WASHINGTON, Oct 2 (AP) — Taking another step toward an impeachment decision, the US Congress today made public the final batch of testimony and tape transcripts from Kenneth Starr’s investigation of President Bill Clinton. The bound, three-volume set of documents included transcripts of Linda Tripp’s secretly taped conversations with Monica Lewinsky and grand jury testimony by Presidential Secretary Betty Currie and Clinton friend Vernon Jordan.
Author arrested
AURANGABAD, Oct 2 (UNI) — The author of the controversial Marathi book "Jahannam Madhye Janar Kon? Hindu Ki Ahindu" Somnath Rana was today arrested on charges of the work being anti-Muslim. Commissioner Shripad Kulkarni said Rana was taken in custody after verification by law experts that the book had created controversy leading to a rift between the two communities. Meanwhile, the Aurangabad bandh, called by the Majlis-e-Shura in protest against the book, evoked a good response in the Muslim dominated localities.

Australian poll
SYDNEY, Oct 2 (PTI) — Some 12 million Australians will cast their votes in tomorrow’s general election which is expected to result in a razor-edge victory for the incumbent coalition government of Prime Minister John Howard. When Howard announced the elections, the coalition, which ended 13 years of Labour rule with a landslide victory in March 1996, looked sure to a second term in office, with Australian voters known to give the government a second term.
Plea to President
NEW DELHI, Oct 2 (PTI) — The Federation of Transport Unions Congress today appealed to President K.R. Narayanan to ask the Supreme Court to review its directive on phasing out old commercial and transport vehicles in the Capital. In a mercy appeal against the SC directive, which came into effect from today, transporters said after the implementation, approximately 80,000 commercial vehicles would be taken off the roads which would directly affect about 10 lakh persons, including families of drivers, owners and helpers.
Naxals attack
HYDERABAD, Oct 2 (PTI) — Suspected Naxalites of the banned Peoples’ War Group today blasted a police station building under construction and raided a Mandal Revenue Office (MRO) in Andhra Pradesh. The police said unidentified extremists broke open an MRO office near Balanagar in the city outskirts and ransacked it after destroying official documents and records. In another incident, suspected extremists of Sarlasagar Dalam blew up a building under construction meant for housing Adakal police station in Mahabubnagar district.
Police firing
GHAZIABAD, Oct 2 (PTI) — One man was killed and over 12 injured when the police opened fire at a stone-throwing mob of villagers near Sisona village here yesterday, the police said today. The incident occurred after the police had taken into custody a man belonging to Sisona village in connection with an inquiry into alleged looting and molestation of some nuns of Cristo Jyoti Public School. The mob demanding the man’s release blocked the Delhi-Saharanpur road and threw stones at the police, injuring five policemen, including a DSP and an Inspector.
Selvaganapathy sacked
CHENNAI, Oct 2 (PTI) — AIADMK chief J. Jayalalitha has stripped former minister T.M. Selvaganapathy of his post of organising secretary. A brief announcement to this effect, made in the party’s organ yesterday, gave no reasons for action against Selvaganapathy, known to be a staunch Jayalalitha loyalist. According to AIADMK sources, the action against him was in the context of alleged irregularities in the run-up to the intra-party poll in his Salem district and the non-fulfilment of tasks assigned to him in election preparations in Tirunelveli district.