tribuneindia...Spotlight

			Saturday, July 3, 1999
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South Korea pulls out of talks
BEIJING, July 2 (AP) — South Korea today pulled out of talks with rival North Korea after negotiators from the North refused to discuss reuniting separated families and tried to sideline negotiations with provocative behaviour. Seoul decided to suspend the shipments of fertiliser that had coaxed North Korea to the negotiating table until Pyongyang decides to discuss the reunions in good faith, South Korea's chief negotiator, Vice Unification Minister Yang Young-Shik, said.
Explosives destroyed
ISLAMABAD, July 2 (Reuters) — The UN has destroyed about one million explosive devices, including anti-personal mines, during a decade of highly risky work in Afghanistan, a UN official said on today. Mr Ian Bullpit, manager of the mine action programme for Afghanistan, told a news conference it would take up to seven more years to destroy the bulk of remaining mines. "Afghanistan remains the most heavily mined country in the world... with catastrophic effects on millions of people," Mr Bullpit said.

Japanese threat
TOKYO, July 2 (PTI) — In its all-out efforts to acquire a permanent UN Security Council seat, Japan has now threatened to withhold payments to the UN unless the Security Council reform is expedited and Tokyo gets a permanent seat there, Tokyo press reports said today. A Japanese Foreign Office top ranking official met UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and impressed upon him that there was a growing clamour within the Japanese Parliament for a Bill to suspend payments to the UN pending UN reforms and grant of Security Council permanent seat to Japan, the report added.
New Bihar party
Tribune News Service
NEW DELHI, July 2 — Dissident BJP MP Janardan Yadav today announced his decision to launch a new regional party in Bihar on July 11 which would maintain equidistant from the BJP, the RJD and the Congress. Mr Yadav told reporters the BJP in Bihar had been reduced to the status of a party of "rejected and retired people" and was virtually functioning as the "B" team of the ruling Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in the state.
All-party meeting
BANGALORE, July 2 (PTI) — Karnataka Chief Minister J.H. Patel would convene a meeting of all party leaders next week to brief them about the talks he held with his Maharashtra counterpart Narayana Rane on the Alamatti and Hippargi Dam height issue, the state Assembly was informed today. Major Irrigation Minister K.N. Nage Gowda said under the guidance of the Central Water Commission (CWC) engineers of Karnataka and Maharashtra had been working on a joint survey to assess the extent of submersion of lands in Maharashtra following increasing of heights of the two dams.