tribuneindia...Spotlight

			Monday, October 18, 1999
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PWG guns down 3 in Bihar
GARWAH, Oct 17 (PTI) — The banned People’s War Group (PWG) attacked Poorvitoola village of Bihar’s Naxalite-dominated Garwah district and killed three persons late last night, a senior police official said today. The killed belong to the Mahto community and land dispute was the reason behind their death, Garwah Deputy Superintendent of Police Praveen Vashist said.

British denial
LONDON, Oct 17 (Reuters) — Britain today denied a report that NATO deliberately bombed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade after the Western alliance discovered the mission was being used to transmit Yugoslav military communications. Britain’s Observer newspaper quoted an unnamed intelligence officer as saying "NATO had been hunting the radio transmitters in Belgrade’’, including one at President Slobodan Milosevic’s house, during its air war against Yugoslavia.

Jaguar’s production
NEW DELHI, Oct 17 (PTI) — The upgraded version of the multi-role Jaguar deep-penetration strike aircraft will now be produced in India jointly by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and British Aerospace (BAE). This will be done under a recently signed contract between the two companies to co-produce the first batch of 17 such aircraft, sources in military aviation industry said.

Ex-Sergeant held
TIRUPATI, Oct 17 (UNI) — The crime branch police here today arrested a former Air Force sergeant on the charge of cheating several people, posing as an official of the Geological Survey of India (GSI). A police official said Bellamkonda Subbanaidu, hailing from Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh, had incurred a huge loss after he took up railway contract works. To clear his debts, he resorted to unfair means to make money.

Bangladesh clashes
KHAGRACHHARI, (Bangladesh), Oct 17 (Reuters) — Two persons were killed and 60 injured in clashes between tribes men and securitymen in Bangladesh’s Chittagong hill tracts, here police said today. The authorities deployed soldiers today to reinforce security in Khagrachari, where tension was still running high. Fighting erupted yesterday at a market in the remote forested hill district after an ethnic Bengali securityman was alleged to have harassed a tribal girl.

Priest arrested
NEW YORK, Oct 17 (IANS) — An American church pastor has been arrested and charged with falsifying documents to sponsor immigrants from several countries, including India, according to reports. The Immigration and Naturalisation Service (INS) arrested Rev Joseph Fairley, the pastor of Church of God Pentecostal in Paterson, New Jersey, on a 10-count indictment, accusing him of filing hundreds of bogus immigration forms to bring in immigrants to serve as church workers and missionaries, the Newark Star-Ledger reported.

‘Biscuit gang’ strikes
CHENNAI, Oct 17 (UNI) — The so called "biscuit gang" which has been robbing passengers travelling in trains running on the east coast by offering them biscuits coated with sedatives, struck again, with the three more persons — Hanumanthan, Satish Kumar and Ravi Shankar travelling to Chennai by the Kakinada-Chennai Circar Express, were found unconscious in a second class compartment by stewards cleaning the train.

Heroin seized
COLOMBO, Oct 17 (PTI) — The Sri Lanka's Narcotics Bureau has claimed to have busted a major Indo-Lanka drug ring with the arrest of a retired Indian police officer on his arrival here with a large cache of heroin early this week. The former Tamil Nadu police officer, who was carrying 1.7 kg of heroin, provided enough details to the bureau to break a drug mafia ring in Colombo and arrest several of its members, state-owned Sunday Observer reported today.