S P O T L I G H T

CONTAMINATED WATER MAKES 40 ILL
Hyderabad, March 6
More than 40 persons, including children, fell ill after drinking contaminated tap water in Anantapur town in the drought-prone Rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh yesterday. Official sources here today said the victims were admitted to the General Hospital. Tankers were pressed into service to supply drinking water in the affected areas. UNI

CHINA-RUSSIA PACT
Beijing, March 6
Chinese President Jiang Zemin will sign a treaty of friendship with Russia during a visit to Moscow in July, Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan said today. Tang stressed the treaty would not be a formal alliance like the one that once existed between China and the former Soviet Union. The signing of the Good Neighbourly Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation will underline a growing warmth between the giant neighbours. Reuters

10 KILLED IN LANKA
Colombo, March 6
Government forces ambushed a group of Tamil tigers in north-eastern Sri Lanka today, killing at least eight of them, the Defence Ministry said here. Troops shot dead eight members of the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) at Peraru in the north-eastern jungles during an ambush today, ministry spokesman Sanath Karunaratne said. He said a government soldier was also killed when an Army patrol was ambushed by the LTTE in the Weli Oya region. AFP

BIRTH IN THE SKY
Kolkata, March 6
An Aeroflot plane made an emergency landing here late on Tuesday night after an Indian woman gave birth to a baby girl in the sky, airport officials said. The flight en route from Singapore to Moscow was flying over Kolkata a when Gurmeet Kaur broke water. Doctors of the Airport Authority of India rushed to attend to the mother and the child after the plane was given permission to land here. UNI