tribuneindia...Spotlight

			Saturday, October 2, 1999
weather today's calendar

Over 12 foreigners in besieged embassy
BANGKOK, Oct 1 (Reuters) — Hostages held by gunmen in the besieged Myanmar Embassy in Bangkok include more 12 foreigners and all are safe, one of the hostages, a Canadian, said by telephone today. A television producer who managed to reach the hostage-takers by phone was informed by a man who identified himself as Canadian hostage Antoine Marcotte, 31, from Montreal. Three Frenchmen, three Canadians, one German, an American and several Malaysians, Singaporeans and Thais were being held hostage, Mr Marcotte said.

Dara aide held
KEONJHAR, Oct 1 (PTI) — Bhimasen Mahanta, an accomplice of fugitive Dara Singh, was arrested from Belsari village under Saharapada block in Keonjhar district today, the police said. SP Arun Roy said that a police party, which was lying in wait for Mahanta since last night, apprehended him when he came out of the village this morning.

Repoll in Bihar
PATNA, Oct 1 (PTI) — Repoll and "adjourned" poll will be held on October 4 in 326 booths spread over nine Lok Sabha constituencies in Bihar where elections were held either on September 18 or September 25, election office sources said. Among these are Barh and Hazaribagh constituencies where Railway Minister Nitish Kumar and Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha are in the fray, the sources said.

Gulshan murder case
MUMBAI, Oct 1 (PTI) — The Bombay High Court today rejected the application of the Bombay Police urging for cancellation of the bail of Ramesh Taurani, owner of Tips Cassette and a co-accused in the murder of music magnate Gulshan Kumar.

9 Shi’ites killed
KARACHI, Oct 1 (Reuters) — At least nine Shi’ite Muslims were killed and six wounded in two separate incidents today, the latest in a series of attacks against Shi’ites in Pakistan this week, the police said. It said unidentified gunmen attacked a Shi’ite mosque in Karachi in Sindh province, killing eight persons and injuring five. In a separate incident in Multan, Punjab, a Shi’ite activist was killed by two gunmen. A child was injured in the shooting.

Russian missile
MOSCOW, Oct 1 (DPA) — The Russian military today test-fired a ballistic missile from a nuclear submarine in the Sea of Okhotsk, north of Japan, Russian news agencies reported. The Delta-3 missile successfully hit a target on the Kanin peninsula in the White Sea in the Russian Arctic, military officials said. Russia had previously informed the USA of the scheduled test.

Mexico quake kills 18
MEXICO CITY, Oct 1 (DPA) — A powerful earthquake struck central Mexico yesterday, killing at least 18 persons, injuring more than 40 and badly damaging at least 300 buildings, an official said. Local news reports said the quake measured 7.4 on the Richter scale and the epicentre was located 12-km deep near the Pacific Coast resort town of Puerto Escondido in the southern state of Oaxaca, about 500 kilometres south of Mexico City.