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 Words in the News
INTRO 
 BBC correspondents David Chazan and Daniel Lak reported on the Pakistani naval aircraft which was shot down by India.
IN FULL 
 AudioListen to the report in full
Downing of Pakistani plane

12th August 1999

Downing of Pakistan aircraft by India

NEWS 1 The shooting down of the Pakistani aircraft has rekindled tensions between the two nuclear powers. Both India and Pakistan claim they have retrieved wreckage of the plane within their territory. But the debrisis strewn over a large swampy area along the border and it may never become clear where the aircraft were at the time of the confrontation. Pakistan has demanded an apology, which is unlikely to be forthcoming. India has placed its security forces on alert only weeks after the end of the Kashmir crisis which brought India and Pakistan to the brink of a fourth war in fifty-two years.
WORDS 
 

rekindled tensions: caused tensions to begin again

wreckage: what remains after a plane, car or building has been destroyed

debris: scattered pieces of rubbish or remains

is strewn: lies scattered

on alert: ready to react to anything that happens

the brink: if you're 'on the brink' of something important you are just about to do it

NEWS 2 Pakistan is clearly going to present itself as a nation wronged and try to see if there's any lost ground to be regained diplomatically after it was largely considered as bearing the lion's share of responsibility for fighting in Kashmir earlier this year. India will continue to maintain that it was only reacting as any other country would with its air space violated.
WORDS  

lost ground: if you regain 'lost ground' then you take back the advantage, here the diplomatic advantage

the lion's share: the largest part of something, here the largest part of the responsibility

air space: the part of the sky over a country which is considered to belong to that country

  Read about the sequel in BBC News Online
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