Globetrotting — LTTE-held hostage killed

COLOMBO: A North Korean crew member was killed when Tamil rebels hijacked a cargo vessel off Sri Lanka's northern coast, military officials...

COLOMBO: A North Korean crew member was killed when Tamil rebels hijacked a cargo vessel off Sri Lanka’s northern coast, military officials said today. The North Korea registered `Moran Bong’ was returning from Point Pedro harbor when LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) rebels in boats approached it around Monday midnight, officials said.

Details of the slain crew member were not immediately available, but officials said he was killed when the rebels were boarding the vessel. The other 37 crew members were taken ashore by the rebels.

Russian ICBM

MOSCOW: Russia test fired a Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missile successfully from the Plesetsk state testing grounds, the head of the strategic missile troops press centre, Col Ilshat Baichurin, has said. The missile test was the last phase before the start of production of this type of nuclear missiles of the 21st century. The Topol-M missile, created solely by the Russian Defence Ministry, was designed at the Moscow Institute of Thermotechnics led by general designer Yuri Solomonov. Winnie contestsJOHANNESBURG: The ex-wife of President Nelson Mandela will contest the election for deputy president in the ruling African National Congress in her bid to stage a political come-back.

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Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, president of the ANC women’s league, will fight for the second top position in the ANC after deputy president Thabo Mbiki was elected president of the party.

Whoever is elected deputy president of the ANC is also tipped to become the deputy president of the country when Mbeki takes over from President Nelson Mandela in 1999.

Cypriot crisis

AMENIA: leaders of the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities meet today for the first time in three years to try to revive negotiations to end the 23-year division of Cyprus. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan will open the five-day talks, then turn the proceedings over to former Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Diego Cordovez, who negotiated the 1988 agreement which led to the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Prisoners killed

ANKARA: Eight Turkish prisoners were killed and 11 injured overnight in rioting in an Istanbul prison while protesting against poor conditions.Police stormed the city’s Metris jail early today to end the rioting while firefighters intervened to put out a fire started by the prisoners in one of the buildings.