LONDON: Another year, another Booker Prize winner: the 1998 winner is Ian McEwan, for his novel Amsterdam. McEwan pipped the bookies favourite and five times nominee Beryl Bainbridge to win the 21,000 pound prize, considered the highest literary accolade for English language fiction in the Commonwealth.

Pilot hijacks plane

BEIJING: The pilot of a Chinese civilian airliner hijacked the plane he was commandeering with 102 people including 20 foreigners on board to China's arch rival Taiwan, bringing his wife saying he disliked life in the communist mainland.

Pak may default

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is perilously close to defaulting on its debt repayments to multilateral term lending institutions following its failure to break the deadlock in negotiations for a bailout package with the IMF and World Bank. Not only have the country's foreign exchange reserves slumped below the danger level of US $ 500 million, but its negotiators failed toachieve a breakthrough during their lengthy talks with the IMF and World Bank, media reports said.

Deep depression

CHENNAI: The deep depression over the West coast was centred around 400 kms East of Chennai, according to the area cyclone warning centre here. It was likely to intensify further and move in a westerly direction, crossing North Tamil Nadu and the South Andhra coasts tomorrow evening.