tribuneindia...Spotlight

			Monday, October 25, 1999
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Russia pounds Chechen sites; 39 killed
GROZNY, Oct 24 (AP) — At least 39 persons were killed and dozens injured as Russian warplanes and artillery pounded towns around Grozny and other parts of Chechnya today, Chechen officials claimed. The Russian military acknowledged it fired missiles at targets around the towns of Bamut and Achkoi-Martan, but said they were aimed at rebel military positions. The Chechen military reported that the Russians also "heavily pounded" villages to the north and east of Grozny. It said a pre-dawn Russian rocket attack on the town of Vedeno, 30 km southeast of the capital, had killed 23 persons and wounded 58. Russian artillery also targeted the village of Samashki, near Chechnya’s western border, killing 16 persons and wounding 41 others, the Chechens said. The casualty figures could not be confirmed, and the Russian command did not offer any estimates of its own. The Chechens did not say if the casualties included rebel fighters.

Delivery of sub to Pak stopped
ISLAMABAD, Oct 24 (PTI) — Pakistan’s naval expansion plans have suffered a major setback with France reportedly stopping the delivery of a highly sophisticated ‘Agosta’ class submarine in view of the military takeover in Islamabad. Christened PNS-Khalid, the French-built submarine was inducted into the Pakistan Navy in September and was all set to leave for Pakistan last Thursday when it was stopped "for the time being" by the French Navy.

18 dead in Pak blast
LAHORE, Oct 24 (AFP) — At least 18 persons, were killed and several others injured in a gas explosion in Pakistan, officials today said. According to witnesses cited by the police, the blast occurred late last night in the town of Toba Tek Singh in the central province of Punjab when workers were digging up a gas pipeline.

BJP workers’ protest
BANGALORE, Oct 24 (UNI) — The BJP workers, supporting senior leader B.B. Shivappa, indulged in stone throwing in front of the BJP office here today, protesting against the election of Mr Jagadish S. Shettar as leader of the party’s legislature wing. Several policemen and three mediapersons were injured in the incident.

Afghan chief shot
KARACHI, Oct 24 (DPA) — Unidentified attackers shot dead a former Afghan commander in Pakistan’s Baluchistan province yesterday, news reports said today. Haji Noorzai was gunned down on his way to a market in Chaman district, 110 km north of Quetta, the provincial capital. The attackers escaped.

Endangered vulture
AMMAN, Oct 24 (AFP) — Jordanian conservationists have saved a rapacious griffon vulture from immobility by starving it to make it fly again, the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature said. The bird is part of a breed regionally threatened in the Middle East and one of the several protected species that are being bred in the Dana Reserve, south of Amman.

USA cuts visas
NEW YORK, Oct 24 (Reuters) — The USA has sharply curtailed the number of visas issued to Russian students over concern that they might try to escape their country’s financial problems and settle in the USA, the New York times reported today. It said about 40 per cent of Russian students who sought to study using private funds were refused visas this year, twice the rejection rate of previous years.