S P O T L I G H T

UK court convicts two Sikhs
New Delhi, August 16
In the first-ever conviction under Britain's anti-terror law, a Kent court has sentenced two Germany-based members of the International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF) to 30 months in jail. Home Ministry sources said today that Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani was writing to his British counterpart John Prescott to hail the move against terrorist organisations. Avtar Singh Hundal and Kesar Singh Dhaliwal were detained on arrival in Dover from Germany in January 2000. The British police believed the men had arrived in the UK to raise funds for the ISYF, an organisation proscribed under Britain's Terrorism Act of 2000. Dhaliwal's wife and son live in the UK which he visited frequently. Another man, Paramjit Singh, who had been arrested along with Hundal and Dhaliwal, was still under detention and charges had not yet been framed against him. UNI

2 die in copter crash
New Delhi, August 16
A Cheetah helicopter of the Indian Air Force crashed near Leh in Jammu and Kashmir, killing Squadron Leader Sanjay Bhardwaj and co-pilot Flt-Lieut M. Trikha. An IAF spokesman said here that the helicopter was coming back to the forward landing base at Thoise after a support mission in the Siachen sector when it crashed. According to a preliminary report, the helicopter crashed due to engine failure. A court of inquiry has been ordered into the cause of the accident, the first in the Siachen sector in the past six years. TNS