tribuneindia...Spotlight

			Thursday, October 28, 1999
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IA plane skids off runway
YANGON, Oct 27 (AP) — All 91 people aboard an Indian Airlines flight escaped injury when the Airbus 320 skidded off the runway at Yangon’s international airport, an official said today. The plane was landing in rain on a scheduled flight from Calcutta to Yangon at 1946 IST yesterday evening with 82 passengers and nine crew.

Vaz honoured
LONDON, Oct 27 (PTI) — Keith Vaz, British Minister of State in the Foreign and Commonwealth office and Paul Boateng, Minister of State in the Home Office, have been jointly selected for the "Men of the Decade" award in recognition of their high achievement within the Asian community. Aden-born Vaz, who has roots in Goa, was promoted as a minister by Prime Minister Tony Blair in the recent cabinet reshuffle.

Bangla violence
DHAKA, Oct 27 (AFP) — Violence raged through two Bangladeshi towns after two ruling party student leaders were killed, newspapers reported here today. In eastern Brahmanbaria district, Omra Khan, president of a local unit of the Bangladesh Chatra League (BCL), the student wing of the ruling Awami League, was stabbed to death on Monday, allegedly by arch rivals from the Jatiyabadi Chatra Dal. An incident in northern Sherpur district town the same day left the second BCL leader dead, allegedly in factional clashes.

HC notice to UGC
NEW DELHI, Oct 27 (UNI) — Delhi High Court today issued show cause notices to the central government, University Grants Commission (UGC) and its 83 colleges to accept the recommendations of a committee which said that posts falling vacant after the retirement or resignation or promotion of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes should be filled by the members of those castes and tribes.

20 die in fire
BEIJING, Oct 27 (AP) — A fast spreading fire in a leather goods factory suffocated 20 workers and injured nine others in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, the official Beijing Youth Daily reported today. Firefighters found the dead and injured on the top floor of the three-storey building.

15 die in bus mishap
COLOMBO, Oct 27 (AP) — Fifteen persons were killed and 35 others injured when a packed bus veered off the road and plunged into a precipice in central Sri Lanka, a police official said today. The bus, travelling from Colombo to the central town of Gampola, lost control and skidded off the road yesterday.

Dara aide held
BARIPADA, Oct 27 (PTI) — Andha Naik, a close associate of Dara Singh, was arrested by a special police squad from Karanjia forests, about 120 km from here in the early hours today, official sources said. Naik, who carried a reward of Rs one lakh on his head, was one of the accused in the murder of Australian missionary Graham Stewart Staines and his two sons at Manoharpur in Keonjhar district in January.

Kidnappers cornered
SANAA, Oct 27 (Reuters) — Yemeni forces today surrounded the hideout of kidnappers of three US citizens seized in the poor Arab state, apparently by disgruntled tribesmen. The three Americans, believed to be a woman who teaches English at the Yemeni-American Language Institute in Sanaa and her parents who were visiting from the USA, were kidnapped yesterday.

Taliban reshuffle Cabinet
KABUL, Oct 27 (AP) — Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban militia made a clean sweep of its Cabinet today making Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, a close ally of the supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, as the new Foreign Minister. The Cabinet shuffle was announced on the Taliban-run Radio Shariat. Mullah Abdul Razzak, a former governor of Herat is the new Interior Minister. Maulvi Qudratullah was named the Minister of Information and Culture. Maulvi Saduddin is the Taliban’s new mayor of Kabul. Amir Khan Muttaqi, the former Information Minister, was made Chief of Administration in the Taliban’s Cabinet.