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			Friday, July 2, 1999
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North Korea snaps parleys
BEIJING, July 1 (DPA) — The first high-level talks between North and South Korea in 14 months have been stalled. A disgruntled North Korean delegation broke off the third round of talks between the two sides in Beijing today. It was not clear when the meeting would resume. ‘‘We are very disappointed,’’ said South Korean delegation leader Yang Young Shik. The talks ended in mutual recriminations. Mr Yang said North Korea had demanded an apology for the naval battle that erupted between the two states on June 15. A North Korean ship was sunk and an unknown number of sailors killed. Mr Yang said Seoul had no intention of getting into a row on the issue and warned, ‘‘if there shall be more armed provocations by the North, we will counter that.’’ He also complained that Pyongyang had refused to discuss the reunion of families separated since the 1950-53 Korean war. Mr Yang also said Pyongyang was angered by an interview given to a South Korean magazine by North Korean defector Hwang Jang Yop. In the interview Mr Hwang, former chief of ideology in the North, had criticised President Kim Jong Il. According to Mr Yang, the Pyongyang delegation accused Seoul of planning the interview which it said had ‘‘criticised and humiliated’’ the North.

Five Judges appointed
NEW DELHI, July 1 (UNI) — President K.R. Narayanan today appointed a judge and four additional judges to the Jammu and Kashmir High Court and the Delhi High Court, respectively. An official press note here stated that Justice Mohammad Yasin of Kausa, Additional Judge of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, had been appointed Judge in the same court. In the Delhi High Court, Justice Kripa Shankar Gupta, Justice Chander Krishan Mahajan, Justice Mukul Mudgal and Justice Madam Bhimrao Lakur have been appointed Additional Judges in that order of seniority with effect from the date they assume charge of their office.

Fresh warrant
PATNA, July 1 (PTI) — The CBI designated court today issued a fresh arrest warrant against alleged fodder scam kingpin S.B. Sinha and asked the investigating agency to produce him before it by July 15. The provisional bail to Mr Sinha issued by the court had expired on May 14 and he had failed to appear on account of illness in the trial court since then. Mr Sinha is being treated at a hospital in New Delhi for kidney and other related ailments.

Quake in Tibet
BEIJING, July 1 (Reuters) — An earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale rocked Tibet today, but no reports of damage or casualties have been received, a seismologist said. The quake jolted Nyainrong county at 12.22 p.m. (0422 GMT), but there have been no reports of damage or casualties because the area is sparsely populated, an official of the Seismological Bureau said. He declined to comment further.

Talks resumed
BEIJING, July 1 (DPA) — A frosty start marked the resumption of talks between North and South Korea in Beijing today as the Pyongyang delegation head refused to shake his southern counterpart's hand. "Handshakes are not important", Mr Park Young Soo told Seoul's Vice Unification Minister Yang Young Shik in front of rolling cameras. At two previous meetings in a hotel in the Chinese Capital on the issues of family reunions across the cold war divide and aid shipments to the famine-hit North, the officials had shaken hands in front of the press, despite tense relations.

Cable car mishap
GRENOBLE (France), July 1 (Reuters) — Twentyone persons died when a cable car taking personnel to an alpine observatory fell 80 metres in southeastern France today, a spokesman for the Local Government representative said. He said there were no survivors in the car, which was taking dayshift staff at 7.30 a.m. (local time) to the astronomical observatory on the 2,700-metre-high Pic de Bure above the resort of Saint-Etiene-en-Devoluy near the town of Gap. The cable car was used only for the observatory and no tourists were believed to be on board.