tribuneindia...Spotlight

			Monday, September 13, 1999
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Campaign to block release of ‘Jinnah’
LONDON, Sept 12 (PTI) — Opponents of a film starring Christopher Lae, famous for his portrayal of "Dracula", as Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, have sworn to block the movie's release in Pakistan next month. According to a report published today, one local Urdu newspaper, the daily Khabrain, has run a sustained campaign against the film, going even to the extent of dubbing the actors of the movie as "prostitutes". Daily Editor Zia Shahed last week said he felt the film was "deeply objectionable" and ought to be stopped. Others have denounced the film as a ‘Hindu and Zionist plot’, the report in The Observer said.

KGB agent identified
LONDON, Sept 12 (PTI) — A second Briton — a former Scotland Yard detective — was identified as a KGB agent by Soviet defector Vasili Mitrokhin but escaped prosecution, media reports said here today. Mitrokhin, a former KGB archivist, named John Symonds, 64, as a spy when he fled to the west seven years ago. The list of Soviet spies he handed to the British External Intelligence Agency MI6 included that of Melita Norwood, now 87, who passed crucial atomic secrets to the Kremlin under the codename Hola.

Pak submarine
PARIS, Sept 12 (PTI) — Pakistan’s recently acquired French-built Agosta submarine will soon be fitted with air-independent propulsion (AIP) system posing a serious threat to Indian ships, defence analysts here said. The three Agostas will also have the deadly Exocet anti-ship missiles which sank a couple of British war ships during Falklands war in 1982.

20 killed in Syria
DAMASCUS (Syria), Sept 12 (AP) — At least 20 persons, including five children, were killed and 42 injured when a bus flipped over and fell six metres from a bridge, the official Al-Baath newspaper reported today. The accident took place on Friday night along the Homs-Tartous highway about 180 north of Damascus.

Jordanian convicted
NEW DELHI, Sept 12 (TNS) — A Jordanian national, Fatouh Ahmed Mahmoud Abu Satta alias Razi Ozban, has been convicted for forgery and cheating banks in India. Investigations undertaken by the Special Investigation Group of the CBI revealed that he entered into a criminal conspiracy with some unknown persons with an object to encash forged/counterfeit demand drafts, a bureau release said.

Nepal-Bhutan talks
KATHMANDU, Sept 12 (Reuters) — Bhutanese Foreign Minister Jigmi Thinley will visit Kathmandu on Monday to resume dialogue with Nepal on an unresolved refugee problem dating from 1990, the government said today. "I am hopeful about the positive outcome of the talks," Nepalese Foreign Minister Ram Sharan Mahat said in a statement. The talks would focus on the problem of more than 95,000 Bhutanese refugees living in camps in eastern Nepal.