U.S. Sends Carrier to Gulf
      WASHINGTON - Saturday November 15, 1997 - President Clinton
 ordered the aircraft carrier George Washington to the Persian
 Gulf as Baghdad called on the United Nations to abandon sanctions.
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   Thousands mourn Indian junior defence minister killed in crash
     NEW DELHI --- November 15, 1997 01:53 a.m. EST --- Thousands of
 people Saturday mourned the death of India's junior defence minister,
 N.V. Somu, killed in a helicopter crash on Friday, the Press Trust
 of India said.
     It said the mourners, including senior Indian politicians and
 officials, thronged around Somu's home in the southern state of
 Madras despite heavy rain.
     Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral has cancelled other public
 functions to attend Somu's funeral in Madras, where the body was
 brought from the crash site in the far eastern state of Arunachal
 Pradesh.
     Somu, a major general, and two military pilots died when their
 helicopter crashed near the Sino-Indian border town of Tawang on
 Friday.
     A member of the regional Tamil Dravida Munnetra Kazagham party
 from the southern state of Tamil Nadu, Somu was appointed minister
 of state for defence in Gujral's coalition government last year.
     Somu, who died aged 60, had earlier been a trade union leader
 before entering active politics.
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