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RJD minister quits, Shahabuddin held
BJP calls it diversionary tactic

New Delhi, November 5 RJD MP from Bihar Syed Shahabuddin was arrested from his official residence here in a dramatic manner by a five-member Bihar Police team led by Sub-Inspector Gauri of Hussainganj police station, even as Union Minister of State for Water Resources Jai Prakash Narain Yadav resigned from his ministerial post today.

Elusive RJD MP from Siwan Mohammad Shahabuddin, who was arrested by a team of the Bihar Police from his official residence, is taken to Parliament Street police station in New Delhi on Saturday. — Tribune photo by Mukesh Aggarwal

I will not quit, says Natwar
Sonia, PM discuss probe nature
New Delhi, November 5
Even as the Natwar Singh imbroglio connected with the UN oil-for-food programme in Iraq has pushed the Manmohan Singh government on the backfoot and energised the Opposition to bay for his ouster, the External Affairs Minister ruled out putting in his resignation as he categorically denied the allegations against him and the Congress. In video (28k, 56k)

Report outrageous, says Natwar
New Delhi, November 5
External Affairs minister K. Natwar Singh refused to put in his papers, dismissing the allegations in the Volcker Committee report that he and the Congress party bad benefited from the UN’s Iraq’s Oil-for-Food programme.

India in touch with UN, Volcker
Nation page
BJP holds protest march over Volcker report
BJP making an issue of nothing, says Natwar’s son

Cong on defensive, yet to finalise line of action
New Delhi, November 5
Hit hard by revelations of kickback in Iraqi oil deals, the government was today struggling to formalise the institution of a credible inquiry committee, to be headed most probably by a non-partisan eminent person, to go into the charges against External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh and the Congress.

Two siblings die as van, train collide
Noormahal (Jalandhar), November 5
A pall of gloom descended on Uppal Khalsa village near here as two school-going kids of a glass merchant were crushed to death when the school van carrying them got stuck on the rail tracks at an unmanned railway crossing on the city outskirts and was subsequently hit by the Ludhiana-Lohian DMU train today.

Punjab page: Injured girl blames it on van driver
Upset stomach saved him

Ludhiana page: Heart-rending scenes at DMC Hospital Jalandhar SSP Ishwar Singh inspects the mangled remains of a school van hit by a train at an unmanned crossing near Noormahal town in Jalandhar district on Saturday. — Tribune photo by Pawan Sharma

LoC to be opened tomorrow
New Delhi, November 5
The crossing point between India and Pakistan on the Line of Control at Poonch in Jammu region will be opened on Monday to provide earthquake relief material in pursuance of the agreement reached between the two countries in Islamabad on October 29.

Bir Devinder meets Governor
Lovely varsity Bill
Chandigarh, November 5
Mr Bir Devinder Singh, Congress MLA, who had opposed the Lovely Professional University Bill, 2005, on the floor of the Punjab Assembly last month, today met the Punjab Governor, Gen S.F. Rodrigues (retd), to request him not to give his consent to the Bill and refer it to either the Select Committee of the House or the Committee of Experts to remove certain provisions.