Global Trust Bank to be merged with OBC
Mumbai, July 26
The troubled Global Trust Bank will be merged with the Oriental Bank of Commerce, the Reserve Bank of India announced on Monday.

Editorial: Bank burst
In video:  Chidambaram says Global Trust deposits reasonably safe. (28k, 56k)

Business: Your money is safe, FM assures GTB depositors Chandigarh page: Relief for depositors Depositors outside Global Trust Bank in Ahmedabad on Monday after the RBI imposed a three-month moratorium on the transactions of the bank.  — PTI photo

Zarina Akhter, mother of Sajid Naeem, one of the Pakistanis held hostage in Iraq, weeps in Islamabad on Monday. — Reuters

Captors extend deadline, warn India
New Delhi, July 26
As the Iraq hostage crisis entered the sixth day tonight, there were signs of delicate and result-oriented negotiations going on with the abductors of seven truckers, three of them Indians, and the threat to the captives’ lives appeared to have receded.

Punjab page: Hostages in Iraq: prayers in HP, roads blocked in Punjab

Punjab wants more power to tide over crisis
New Delhi, July 26
Faced with a worsening power situation, Punjab today sought more allocation from the Central sector projects and an increase in share from the "unallocated" power reserve of the Centre.

PSEB staff cool off in ACs despite ban
Drought: Centre rushes high-level team to Punjab
Punjab page: Declare Punjab drought-hit, says SAD

SPECIAL FEATURE  Fire: How safe are our schools? — A Tribune survey As many as 90 children were burnt alive when fire engulfed Lord Krishna Higher Secondary School at Kumbakonam in Tamil Nadu on Saturday morning.

Water crisis likely to deepen
New Delhi, July 26
The north-western parts of the country, including Punjab and Haryana, have experienced 39 per cent less rainfall this monsoon and the prospects of its revival appear bleak in the next few days.

Opinions page: How to solve SYL dispute
Nation page: Punjab will abide by SC ruling, says CM
Haryana page: Ajay Chautala dubs Cong resignations on SYL as ‘charade’

NDA not to join House panels
New Delhi, July 26
In an aggressive posture towards the ruling combine, the National Democratic Alliance leaders today decided to boycott all Parliamentary Standing and Consultative Committees to protest against what they described as the "confrontationist attitude" of the UPA government towards the opposition.

HC reserves verdict on Soren
Ranchi, July 26
The Jharkhand High Court today reserved its order on the writ petition filed by Jharkhand Mukti Morcha supremo and former Coal and Mines Minister Shibu Soren seeking quashing of an arrest warrant issued against him by a lower court.

Nation page: Warrant against ex-minister in 21-year-old case