Quicktakes

Bihar cold wave claims 31PATNA: With 21 more deaths reported during the past 24 hours, the toll in this season's cold wave in Bihar went u...

Bihar cold wave claims 31
PATNA: With 21 more deaths reported during the past 24 hours, the toll in this season8217;s cold wave in Bihar went up to 31. Reports said nine people died in Saran district, seven lost their lives in Patna and five fell prey to the cold wave in Vaishali district. Gaya recorded the coldest day of the season as the mercury dipped to six degree Celcius, while the state capital recorded a minimum temperature of 9.3 degree Celcius. The State8217;s summer capital Ranchi recorded a minimum temperature of 7.8 degrees and Jamshedpur recorded a minimum temperature of 10.8 degrees during the day.

Bhattacharji dead
NEW DELHI: Well-known TV personality and senior Unicef official Bhaskar Bhattacharji died here Saturday afternoon. He was 42 and is survived by wife. It is understood that Bhattacharji had been feeling depressed for sometime and committed suicide by jumping off a five star hotel. He had recently joined as chief advocacy and information officer with the Unicef. Beforethat, Bhattacharji had worked as a chief PRO for the United Nations Development Programme.
Bhattacharji was also a well-known theatre personality and a former news reader on TV. The last rites would be performed at the electric crematorium at Nigambodh Ghat.

Militants killed
JAMMU: Six ultras and two securitymen were among nine people killed in different militancy-related incidents even as the five cops abducted by militants on Friday were released in Jammu division. The five police constables and a special police officer SPO were abducted from near a mosque after performing Friday prayers. Two militants and a security jawan were killed in an encounter in Surankote area of Poonch district on Saturday. The encounter, which started this morning, was continuing till last reports came in. Reports from Rajouri district said militants ambushed an army patrol in Suranthal forests and killed a jawan.

Fog covers Delhi
NEW DELHI: Flight schedules were severely disrupted, trains ran behindschedule and several accidents were reported on road as Delhi continued to experience thick fog in the morning for the fifth consecutive day on Saturday. The fog continued to cover the city well into the first half of the day and thereafter overcast conditions gave a dull beginning to the new year.
Safdarjang Met director S C Gupta said the fog would continue for the next couple of days at least.

Y2K OK sectors
NEW DELHI: All 11 critical sectors monitored for possible Y2K bug have been found to be working smoothly without glitches, ending months of anxiety over behavior of hi-tech computers installed at the core sectors including nuclear centres and infrastructure areas at the ring of the new year. 8220;There will be no long-term Y2K compliance problems in these 11 critical sectors for which the total expenditure can be estimated between Rs 1500 to Rs. 2000 crore,8221; information technology secretary P V Jayakrishnan told. 8220;We made double-checks on these critical operations,8221; he said adding thatthe roll-over was so smooth that the government didn8217;t even require to activate its contingency plan drawn up for the occasion.

Millennium babies
BHUBANESWAR: Two millennium babies were born in Orissa just minutes past midnight on Friday. Priti Chandra Das 28, a school teacher, gave birth to a girl at 00.10 hrs on January 1, 2000, at Bhubaneshwar8217;s Capital Hospital. Priti and her husband, a computer engineer, have named their daughter Millennium Das alias Milli.8217;
While at 00.01 hrs another millennium baby girl was born to Krushna Das, a telephone operator in the Orissa Circle of the DoT. However, Krushna and her husband Sarat had no idea about the millennium baby8217; concept and they had not planned anything for the baby. After congratulatory messages pouring they plan to call the baby something related to millennium8217; or satabdee8217;.