India, EU vow to combat terror
The Hague, November 8
Taking their relationship to a new “strategic partnership” that seeks to expand bilateral trade and investment flows, India and the European Union today condemned all acts of terrorism and pledged to take comprehensive and sustained measures to combat the menace.

World page: PM seeks greater role of NRIs in nation-building
Decision on dual citizenship soon, says PM
In video (28k, 56k)

HC quashes promotion of 4 Air Marshals
New Delhi, November 8
In a major setback to the Indian Air Force, the Delhi High Court today quashed the promotion of four Air Marshals as well as the entire procedure of the Special Promotion Board of February, 2003, which had elevated them to the rank.

India’s first woman pilot beaten up by nephew

Chandigarh, November 8 From being a highflier to come crashing into a life of virtual house arrest and being allegedly beaten by her brother’s son, the past years have been a misery for one of India’s first woman pilot. Air Vice-Marshal Harjinder Singh’s widow, Ms Beant Kaur (right) weeps over her plight, while her younger sister Satwant Kaur shows injury marks on her arms in Chandigarh on Monday. — Tribune photo by Manoj Mahajan

Hike in housing loan interest rates post-Divali
New Delhi, November 8
Interest rates, particularly on housing and car loans, are set to rise with commercial banks hinting strongly that an upward revision is due any time after Divali. This has raised fears about a slowdown in the real estate sector, which has been growing at a scorching pace recently, as people defer investment decisions till the costs of borrowing come down.

New pension plan to cover police, paramilitary men
New Delhi, November 8
The Finance Ministry today said the new defined contribution pension scheme would also be applicable to police and para-military personnel. The new scheme has been operational from January 1 this year and is applicable to new recruits of the Central Government.

Gen Rodrigues is Punjab Governor
New Delhi, November 8
A former Army chief, Gen S. F. Rodrigues, was today appointed Governor of Punjab. General Rodrigues, who was Chief of the Army Staff from July 1990, to June, 1993, will also be the Administrator of the Union Territory of Chandigarh in addition to his duties as Punjab Governor, a Rashtrapati Bhavan communique said. He succeeds O. P. Verma, an NDA government appointee who resigned on October 29.

Punjab page: A surprise, says Gen Rodrigues
General Rodrigues — a profile

Seven students inhale gas, hospitalised Jind, November 8 At least seven schoolchildren and four teachers were hospitalised with suffocation, irritation in the throat and severe coughs after a gas with a pungent smell allegedly leaked from the internal fittings in the chemistry laboratory of the local DAV School here this morning. However, the local authorities said the gas emission was the result of a slip-up by a student while performing an experiment.