S P O T L I G H T

Fire at Japan’s N-plant
TOKYO, Feb 24 (Reuters) — A fire broke out at a Japanese nuclear power plant about 300 km north of Tokyo but was extinguished after about half an hour and no radiation was thought to have leaked, a utility spokesman said today. The fire at the Onagawa number one nuclear plant, owned by Tohoku Electric Power Co Inc, occurred in the basement of a building not directly involved in nuclear power generation, the Tohoku spokesman said.

CVC Bill report
NEW DELHI, Feb 24 (PTI) — The Lok Sabha today extended time for the presentation of the report of the joint committee on the Central Vigilance Commission Bill till the last day of the Budget session. It also extended the time limit for the joint committee on the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Bill. The House also saw Minister of State for Energy Jayawantiben Mehta introducing the Energy Conservation Bill which seeks to provide for efficient use of energy.

Suspension revoked
GANDHINAGAR, Feb 24 (PTI) — The Gujarat Assembly today adopted a motion, by a voice vote, annulling yesterday’s decision to suspend 45 Congress MLAs for varying period of time for disrupting Governor S.S. Bhandari’s Address on the opening day of the Budget session on Monday. Earlier, when the House met in the morning to take up the day’s business with Speaker Dhirubhai Shah in the chair, all 56 Congress MLAs stayed away.

Russian Deputy PM
BEIJING, Feb 24 (DPA) — Russian Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov will visit China next month, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao said today. Mr Klebanov will visit China from March 2 to 4 at the invitation of the Chinese Government.