North faces power, water crises
Bhakra level drops
Chandigarh/Bhakra, September 10
North India is headed for one of the worst water and power crises in the next 10 months till June next year. After a dismal monsoon the availability of water in the Satluj, the Beas and the Ravi has been reduced.

Punjab page:
Chautala for nationalisation of river waters
PSEB increases power cuts
Chandigarh page: City to sweat it out

Normally small islands like these are under the water of the Bhakra reservoir at this time of the year. However, a bad monsoon had not allowed the reservoir to fill up. This picture of the three islands was taken on Friday. — Tribune photo by Karam Singh

Dixit, Aziz hold secret talks in Delhi
New Delhi, September 10
National Security Adviser J.N. Dixit and his Pakistani counterpart Tariq Aziz held secret talks today to prepare the roadmap of the next round of composite dialogue process between the two countries, The Tribune has learnt.

 A Tribune Special 
Security objections go; foreign players set to enter telecom sector
New Delhi, September 10
The Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Defence have quietly dropped their “security objections’’ to the government’s terms to raise the foreign direct investment limit to 74 per cent and despite, the Left’s opposition the government is all set to raise the FDI cap.

Leave religion alone, EC tells parties
New Delhi, September 10
Maharashtra goes to the polls on October 13 to elect a new Assembly during the Ganesh festival, the most popular festival in the state which was used as a platform for political mobilisation during freedom struggle.

Uma starts out on ‘Tiranga Yatra’
Hubli, September 10
BJP leader Uma Bharti today set out from here on “Tiranga Yatra” attacking Congress President Sonia Gandhi, the UPA and Left parties and focussing on the triple planks of nationalism, probity and “true” secularism. Amidst downpour, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha L.K. Advani handed over the National Flag to Ms Bharti.
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HAL aims to make indigenous AJTs
New Delhi, September 10
Having secured contracts from the Airbus Industries and the Bell Helicopters earlier during the year, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited is now looking at arming the IAF with indigenously designed and manufactured Advance Jet Trainers, which would perform alongside the British Aerospace Hawks being purchased by India.

5,000 Punjabi youths suffer Greek tragedy Jalandhar, September 10 Looking for greener pastures, between 3,000 and 5,000 young Punjabis have ended up as a “community of asylum seekers” on the Crete island of Greece. They have been stuck for the past about five years, despite having made several attempts to sneak into one or the other European country as asylum seekers. Having been allured with destination England, these youngsters were allegedly taken to this Greek island by unscrupulous travel agents.