tribuneindia...Spotlight

			Monday, October 4, 1999
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Pak questions J&K accession to India
ISLAMABAD, Oct 3 (PTI) — Pakistan today questioned Jammu and Kashmir’s accession to India while rejecting Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s claim of taking steps to claim the Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) as mere, ‘‘electioneering’’. ‘‘It is obviously electioneering’’, the Pakistani Foreign Minister, Mr Sartaj Aziz, said when his attention was drawn to Mr Vajpayee’s recent statement during an election meeting that India would now have to think about reclaiming the PoK.

EC’s appointment
NEW DELHI, Oct 3 (PTI) — Several citizen’s organisations have requested President K.R. Narayanan to defer the appointment of a new Election Commissioner in place of Mr G.V.G. Krishnamurthy till the new government takes over. In a statement, leaders from the All-India Freedom Fighters Organisation, Campaign Committee of Central Trade Unions, Forum for Voters Initiative and Centre for Media and Cultural Research urged the President to direct the caretaker government to defer the appointment.

Theft in royal palace
LONDON, Oct 3 (DPA) — Scotland Yard is investigating the theft of several items from Princess Anne’s office in Buckingham Palace, according to Sunday Times today. The paper reports that the stolen goods were mainly personal items of great sentimental value and included gifts which she had received, including signed photographs and a 1976 Montreal Olympics tiepin.

Julius Nyerere
LONDON, Oct 3 (Reuters) — Tanzania’s former leader Julius Nyerere remains critically ill in intensive care, an official at the London hospital treating him for leukaemia said today. The 77-year-old ex-president’s condition is unchanged since yesterday, said the spokeswoman for St Thomas’s Hospital, where he is on a life support system.

N-fuel leakage
TOKAIMURA, Oct 3 (AP) — Doubts over safety at Japan’s nuclear facilities grew today as more details emerged of poor precautions at the uranium-processing plant where the country’s worst nuclear accident occurred. JCO Co., the plant’s operator, had been ignoring legally binding procedures for the last four years, and was using its own manual to speed up the processing, the national Asahi newspaper reported today. It cited a company official Hiroyuki Ogawa.

‘Mulla Bomb’ killed
MULTAN, Pakistan, Oct 3 (AFP) — Pakistani police today claimed to have shot dead a key suspected Muslim Sunni terrorist wanted for several sectarian murders and seized a large quantity of arms. The police said Khurshid Ahmed, also known as "Mulla Bomb", was killed when police attempted to stop two motorcycle riders near the town of Vehari, west of Multan in the province of Punjab.

Judge’s vote
BHUBANESWAR, Oct 3 (PTI) — A sitting judge of the Orissa High Court found his vote already cast by someone else when he arrived at the polling station at Balasore today. Justice Ratnakar Dash later cast a tender vote before leaving the booth, according to reports received here.