George flies high in MiG-21
Ambala, August 1 In an attempt to dispel apprehensions about the airworthiness of the aircraft the Defence Minister, Mr George Fernandes, today undertook a sortie in a MiG-21 trainer from the Air Force station here today.
Defence Minister George Fernandes comes out of the cockpit of a MiG-21 after a ride with Wing Commander N Harish at Air Force Station, Ambala, on Friday. — Tribune photo Karam Singh.  In video (28k, 56k)

Drunken cops kill boy  in Patiala
Patiala, August 1
Two drunk policemen, who were on duty, played a cruel “sport” with an 11-year-old boy in a vegetable-cum-tea shop in front of the National Institute of Sports here this afternoon, which ended in his death. The “sport”, which involved teaching the child how to fire a revolver, resulted in a hole in the chest of the only boy of poor parents.

6 cops hurt in Kishtwar clashes
Army stages flag march
Jammu, August 1
The police resorted to firing and bursting teargas shells to quell violence in Kishtwar town where members of two communities clashed and went on a rampage, burning and looting shops. An indefinite curfew had been imposed in the town, but the irate mob defied it and clashed on the streets.

BSP-BJP alliance in UP only
Jagmohan issue closed chapter: Maya
Shimla, August 1
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, today said the alliance between the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party for the Lok Sabha poll would be confined only to Uttar Pradesh. She categorically stated that her party would not have any such arrangement in other states.
In video (28k, 56k)

5 washed away in HP cloudburst
Dharamsala, August 1
Five persons were washed away and two others were injured following a cloudburst which caused torrential rains in flash floods at Lulhani village of Baijnath subdivision in the past 24 hours.

Indian doctors to run Iraq hospital
New Delhi, August 1
Even as the government waits for the situation to unfold on the issue of sending troops for the stabilisation force in Iraq, it has been decided to send a large contingent of Indian doctors and supporting personnel to start and maintain health care services at the 250-bedded hospital being upgraded by India at Najaf, about 15 km south of Baghdad.

9/11 funding traced to Pakistan Washington, August 1 The Bush administration has “traced the origin of the funding of 9/11 to financial accounts in Pakistan, where high-ranking and well-known Al-Qaida operatives played a major role in moving the money forward, eventually into the hands of the hijackers located in the United States.”   Nothing new in FBI disclosures, says India