S P O T L I G H T

18 die in Nepal plane crash
Kathmandu, August 22
Fifteen passengers and three crew members were killed when a Twin Otter of Shangrila Air, a private airlines, crashed today on a hill near Pokhara airport, 200 km west of Kathmandu, officials at the Airport Rescue Coordination Committee said. The plane, flying to Pokhara from Jomsom, crashed due to poor visibility. There were 13 German nationals, one British national and one American national on board the plane. PTI

Pak arrests 6 ultras
Multan, August 22
The police has arrested six Islamic militants from an Al-Qaida-linked group for allegedly planning to blow up a power plant and attack a Christian hospital in eastern Punjab province, a senior officer said today. Ijaz Shafi Dogar, a DSP, said a judge had agreed to a request to hold the men, whom he said belonged to the anti-India guerrilla group Jaish-e-Mohammad. AP

USA for Lanka Peace Jaffna, August 22 The USA will give its “fullest support and encouragement” for the ongoing peace initiative in Sri Lanka to succeed, American Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said here today. “Both parties should come forward to solve the bloody ethnic conflict through political means,” said Mr Armitage, the first top US official to visit Jaffna since 1983. PTI US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, the highest-ranking US official to visit Sri Lanka since the 1950s, drinks coconut milk at Muhamali in the northern Jaffna Peninsula on Thursday. — Reuters photo