Bofors' export
STOCKHOLM, Aug 26 (AFP) — Swedish arms manufacturer Bofors has won authorisation from the Swedish Government for the continued sale of parts and ammunition for howitzer guns already exported to India. The export council authorities met last night to reach final approval to resume delivery of munitions for weapons. The environmentalist Green Party in Sweden has strongly opposed the sales of arms to India.

100 taken ill
MUMBAI, Aug 26 (UNI) — At least 100 persons, mostly children, were taken ill after eating sweets distributed on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan in Vakola-Nirmal Nagar, Jawahar Nagar locality, here today. "The patients are stable and out of danger," a senior medical official of the V.N. Desai hospital where most of the patients have been admitted said. They were admitted to the hospital after they started vomiting and felt severe nausea.

16 cops suspended
LUCKNOW, Aug 26 (PTI) — Sixteen policemen, including a station house officer (SHO), were suspended for a custodial death, dereliction of duties and alleged murder in two incidents in Shajehanpur and Muzaffarnagar districts of Uttar Pradesh since yesterday, official sources said here today. Eleven policemen, including a sub-inspector, absconding after the death of a person in their custody at cantonment outpost in Shajehanpur district, have been suspended, a Home Department spokesman said here today.

Kangra Queen cancelled
NEW DELHI, Aug 26 (UNI) — The newly introduced tourist train between Pathankot and Palampur in Himachal Pradesh, the Kangra Queen Express, has been temporarily cancelled from today till September 15 due to heavy rains in the area and poor patronage of the service by the travelling public. The train service will be resumed from September 16 and booking for this train journey is open now, Northern Railway said today.

Ceasefire holds
BELFAST, Aug 26 (Reuters) — Britain’s Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam today ruled that the Irish Republican Army’s ceasefire had not been violated. Ms Mowlam also said she would not halt the early release of Republican prisoners. The IRA declared an "unequivocal" ceasefire in July 1997 but punishment beatings and shootings, from both sides of the sectarian divide, have continued ever since.

Bengal floods
CALCUTTA, Aug 26 (UNI) — Incessant rains marooned thousands of people in more than 100 villages in Mathabhanga sub-division of West Bengal while a bridge was washed away in Coochbehar this morning snapping road links. Quoting district officials, police headquarters here said half of the 100 ft long bridge over the Dharala river, which connects Mathabhanga and Silatkuchi sub-divisions, was washed away after continuous rain in the past 72 hours. Many rivers in North Bengal were overflowing following continuous rains causing widespread damage in Malda, Dinajpur and Jalpaiguri districts.

2 die in clash
RAMANATHAPURAM, Aug 26 (PTI) — Two persons were hacked to death and as many injured in a clash between two groups of Christians at a village in Ramanathapuram district of Tamil Nadu late last night. Police today said that the clash was sparked by a dispute over selecting a person to head a festival committee of the local church at Pushpavanam village.

Anti-India stir
RUPGANJ (Bangladesh), Aug 26 (Reuters) — Opposition leader Begum Khaleda Zia today set a two-week deadline for the government to ditch a plan to allow Indian goods road passage across Bangladesh or face a crippling siege of the capital Dhaka. "Opposition parties would implement the siege on September 9 unless the government abandoned the India passage plan before then" Ms Khaleda told thousands of followers at Rupganj, 20 km from Dhaka.

Poll boycott
CUTTACK, Aug 26 (UNI) — The Orissa Ministerial Officer’s Association (OMOA) has decided to boycott the electoral process in the state protesting against non-fulfilment of its demands. The association, with more than 52,000 government employees, from block to the district level, has taken strong exception to the "deliberate delay" in removing anomalies in the central pay scales existing since 1989. Talking to newsmen here yesterday, OMOA president Kora Prasad Patnaik flayed the government for granting five extensions to the anomaly committee and replacing its chairman twice in the last one year to "purposely" delay implementation of its recommendations.

Jaya explains
THIRUVALLUR, Aug 26 (UNI) — All India Anna DMK supremo J. Jayalalitha has denied that she had deliberately kept away from the joint campaign meeting, in which she was scheduled to participate along with Congress President Sonia Gandhi at Villupuram on Sunday last. She was reacting for the first time yesterday to set the record straight in view of widespread speculation that the very alliance was at stake.

Y2K plan
NEW DELHI, Aug 26 (UNI) — The Indian Railways is fully prepared to meet the Y2K computer problem, but all its major installations will be manned from December 30 to ensure disruption-free services on January 1, 2000. This was stated during a presentation made today by the Railway Ministry to the high-level ‘action force’, which has been monitoring the Y2K preparedness of different sectors of the economy.

Nepal floods
KATHMANDU, Aug 26 (Reuters) — Floods and landslides in Nepal have killed at least 126 people since June, an official said today. At least five people were killed and 17 missing when a river breached its banks flooding a village in Nepal’s Terai region on Tuesday night, said Khem Raj Neupane, a senior bureaucrat. "We have recovered five bodies," Neupane told Reuters by phone from Chitaun district, 135 km from Kathmandu in the country’s southern plains.

Quake toll 13,009
ANKARA, Aug 26 (Reuters) — The official death toll in last week’s Turkish earthquake stood at 13,009 at 5.30 a.m. today, state-run Anatolian News Agency said. It reported the country’s main crisis centre as saying that 26,606 people were injured in the quake measuring 7.4 on the Richter scale.

Train derailed
PUDUKKOTTAI, Aug 26 (UNI) — At least nine people were injured when five bogies of Tiruchirapalli-Rameswaram passenger derailed between Tirumayam and Chettinad stations near Pudukkotai district of Tamil Nadu late last night Southern Railway sources told UNI that the train, which left for Rameswaram around 9.30 p.m. derailed at 10.05 p.m.

Philippines quake
MANILA, Aug 26 (Reuters) — A strong earthquake shook provinces in the central and southern Philippines today, causing mild panic but there were no reports of casualties or damage, officials said. The tremor, with a magnitude of six on the open-ended Richter scale, originated in the sea and was centred 90 km northeast of coastal Surigao city on the southern island of Mindanao, the Philippine Institute of Vulcanology and Seismology said.