Three, including soldier, killed in Assam gun battles

Two militants and an army soldier were killed in two separate gun battles Thursday in Assam, security officials said.

A police spokesperson said an army soldier and a surrendered militant of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) were killed in a gunfight at village Pengeri in Tinsukia district, about 550 km east of Assam's main city of Guwahati.

"A group of surrendered ULFA militants attacked a routine army patrol leading to a gunfight. An army soldier and a surrendered militant were killed in the gunfight," an army officer said.

Two other surrendered rebels managed to escape.

"We had information that a group of surrendered ULFA militants were actually working on behalf of the outfit and were indulging in an extortion drive in the area," the officer said.

In another gunfight with security forces Thursday, a militant of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) was killed near village Joldoba in Kokrajhar district, 220 km west of here.

"Acting on a tip-off, a joint team of the army and police launched an operation at Joldoba and killed the militant after a gunfight," a police official said.

A revolver with two rounds of ammunition, huge quantities of Bangladeshi currency and several documents were recovered from the dead militant.

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Missing First Lady puts police on edge

Iceland's First Lady gave some anxious moments to the Mumbai police when she went incommunicado for a few hours from her suite at Hotel Trident.

Dorrit Moussaieff, wife of Iceland President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, went "missing" for six hours from the hotel on Monday, following which police were put on alert.

"We were about to launch a manhunt for the President's wife across the city, when she walked into the hotel with shopping bags," a senior officer at Marine Drive police station said.

Dorrit, he said, had gone for shopping and had visited a spa.

The President and his wife, on an official visit to the country, had made a low-key stopover in the city and attended a dinner at Raj Bhavan on January 12.

While Dorrit arrived in Mumbai on Monday morning, the President had reached later in the evening.

At around 1130 hours, Dorrit suddenly disappeared from her suite. "A team of around 25 policemen deployed for her immediately informed us at the police station after which more men were pressed into action," the official said.

Sources in Mumbai police's Protection Branch said as the First Lady did not want a heavy police escort only a few from the Branch accompanied her. The matter was a closely guarded secret and even policemen deployed for her security did not get a whiff of it.

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