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Indonesia passes E. Timor
independence vote
JAKARTA, Oct 19 (AFP) — Indonesia’s national
assembly today ratified East Timor’s independence
vote, Assembly Chairman Amien Rais said. In what amounted
to a no-confidence vote, the assembly members voted 355
to 322 to reject Habibie’s performance 17 months
after he took over from ousted strongman Suharto. There
were nine abstentions and four invalid votes.Hijacker held
CAIRO, Oct 19 (PTI) — The German Police overpowered
the lone hijacker of an Egypt Air Boeing 757 en route to
Cairo from Istanbul with 54 persons on board, shortly
after it landed in the German city of Hamburg at around
8.38 p.m. (local time), ending the over two-hour long
hijack drama. All 54 on board, including the seven crew
members, are reported safe. Two of the passengers are
reportedly Indians. The Arabic-speaking hijacker was
armed with a knife. It was not known if he had any other
weapons.
JMM MPs case: 38
witnesses hostile
NEW DELHI, Oct 19 (PTI) — As many as 48 prosecution
witnesses in the multi-crore JMM MPs bribery case, in
which former premier P.V. Narasimha Rao is facing trial,
have turned hostile so far during recording of their
evidence by the special CBI court here. Special judge
Ajit Bharihoke, who was conducting the trial, had
examined 105 witnesses so far and only four or five
witnesses besides the investigating officers of the CBI
were left to be examined, special prosecutor R.M. Tiwary
said. As many as 48 witnesses had turned hostile
retracting their statements earlier made before the
agency," Mr Tiwary said.
Commonwealth
chief
LONDON, Oct
19 (AFP) — Commonwealth chief Emeka Anyaoku will
come to India tomorrow for talks with Prime Minister Atal
Behari Vajpayee in advance of the Commonwealth summit
later this year, his office announced here. The
Secretary-General will also meet External Affairs
Minister Jaswant Singh. The discussions will focus on
agenda issues for the Commonwealth summit in Durban,
South Africa, in November.
Taiwan rocked
BEIJING,
Oct 19 (PTI) — An earthquake measuring 5.3 degrees
on the Richter scale today jolted Taiwan, still reeling
under last month’s devastating tremor which claimed
at least 2,300 lives. The moderate quake rocked Nantou
county at midnight, Chinese news agency Xinhua reported
quoting China’s network of seismic stations. There
was no report of loss of life or damage to property.
3 LTTE men
killed
COLOMBO,
Oct 19 (AFP) — Sri Lankan troops and Tamil Tiger
guerrillas exchanged fire in the north of the island,
leaving four dead, the Defence Ministry here said today.
Government soldiers shot dead three members of the LTTE
while the security forces lost one trooper killed in
yesterday’s clash at Karuppadamurippu, the military
said. Officials said heavy fighting in the region had
died down since the weekend when both sides lost 242 men
in three days of fighting.
Hostages
released
LISBON, Oct
19 (Reuters) — Kidnappers in eastern Iran have
released three Portuguese men taken hostages three weeks
ago near the Iran-Afghanistan border, the Portuguese
Ambassador to Teheran said today. They were kidnapped on
September 27 by gunmen believed to be drug traffickers.
The three were travelling from Iran to Pakistan on a car
expedition from Lisbon to Macau.
Cong leader
resigns
IMPHAL, Oct
19 (PTI) — Senior Congress leader in Manipur W.
Jagor Singh today resigned from the party expressing his
frustration over the leadership of Manipur Pradesh
Congress Committee (MPCC). In a statement, Mr Jagor
Singh, a former state minister, said he had lost
confidence in the MPCC leadership.
Restaurant food
NEW DELHI,
Oct 19 (PTI) — The Supreme Court has held that for
the purpose of sales tax on food provided to customers in
a restaurant, the service charge and the price of food
have to be taken together. A five-judge constitution
Bench headed by Mr Justice S.P. Bharucha, rejecting the
contention of certain Tamil Nadu restaurant owners, said,
"The price that a customer pays for the supply of
food by the restaurant cannot be split."
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