THE TRIBUNE SPECIALS 50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE TERCENTENARY CELEBRATIONS

S P O T L I G H T

Blast in Kabul
Kabul, September 8
Several persons were wounded when a powerful bomb exploded here today inside the Interior Ministry of Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban, witnesses said. They added the device went off during working hours inside the Anti-Crime Department, injuring mostly officials. Reuters

Mira Nair wins Golden Lion award
Venice (Italy), September 8 
Mira Nair’s “Monsoon Wedding’’ was today awarded the Golden Lion award for best picture at the Venice Film Festival. The maker of “Salaam Bombay’’ picked up the coveted award for her light-hearted account of a wedding in a wealthy family in contemporary India. Two Italians, Sandra Ceccarelli and Luigi Lo Cascio, won the Best Actress and Best Actor awards respectively. DPA

Ultras attack farm
Harare, September 8
Militants, who backed Zimbabwe’s land seizure drive, invaded a white-owned farm today and burned workers’ homes in the first major incident reported since President Robert Mugabe agreed to end the controversial scheme. A spokesman for the mainly white Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) said more than 150 militants had attacked a farm in Beatrice, 50 km south of Harare. Reuters

Cop’s house burgled
Nagpur, September 8
A 9-mm carbine and 30 rounds of magazine and gold ornaments were stolen yesterday from the residence of an armed constable attached to police headquarters, the police said here today. Some unidentified persons burgled the house of police Constable Hemraj Shriram Walde in Vaishalinagar, the body guard of city Municipal Commissioner T. Chandrashekhar, and decamped with the booty, they added. PTI

Heroin seized
Etawah, September 8
Central Narcotics Control Bureau sleuths have busted an inter-state gang of drug traffickers, unearthed an illicit drug processing factory and seized heroin worth about Rs 1 crore in international market at Phuphai village of the district. The Superintendent of Central Narcotics Control Bureau, Gwalior, Mr ‘D. Banerjee, told newsmen here today that while the heroin was seized from a house at Purania Tola in the town. PTI

Notice to Tehelka
Guwahati, September 8
News portal tehelka.com has been sent yet another legal notice, this time by former Assam Assembly Speaker Ganesh Kutum, threatening Rs 50 lakh in damages for a news item alleging he had an affair with the controversial Sanghamitra Bharali. In a news item published on August 18 about former Assam Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta’s bigamous marriage with Bharali, an Assembly secretariat employee, Tehelka had alleged that Kutum had an affair with her. PTI

Satta operators’ gang busted, 18 held
New Delhi, September 8
The Delhi Police today claimed to have busted a gang of satta operators run by Hari Usman in the Chandni Mahal area with the arrest of 18 persons. The suspects were arrested from a marriage hall at Kucha Challan today. The hall is reportedly owned by Haji Usman who is absconding. TNS