101.  The official spokesman said the authorities have appointed a new mediator named Abdul Kabir Sheikh, but added the militants did not allow him to enter the shrine.

102.  The prime minister held talks state chief minister Farooq Abdullah and is expected to announce an economic package for the state, an official spokesman here said.

103.  The official spokesman denied that the captors had issued a fresh deadline.

104.  The official spokesman for Prime Minister Tony Blair had said earlier that work to transform the network would begin in six to eight weeks.

105.  The troops came under attack from the Afghans, sparking the six-hour shootout, an official spokesman said in the state summer capital of Srinagar.

106.  Three security personnel were killed and two militants seriously injured in a gunbattle in the troubled state of Kashmir, an official spokesman said Tuesday.

107.  Thirteen people were killed in an ambush near a Rwandan refugee camp near Goma in eastern Zaire, aid and official spokesmen said Saturday.

108.  The Vietnamese government is to work on its public relations with the appointment of an official spokesman, a cabinet official said Thursday.

109.  Walesa sacked him abruptly last Friday, and sent official spokesman Leszek Spalinski packing at the same time.

110.  Iraqi President Saddam Hussein agreed Tuesday to allow two top-level defectors to return to Iraq after they fled to Jordan six months ago, an official Iraqi spokesman said.