NEWS AND VIEWS

PUNJAB

HARYANA

JAMMU & KASHMIR

HIMACHAL

REGIONAL BRIEFS

NATION

OPINIONS

MAILBAG

BUSINESS

SPORTS

WORLD

THE TRIBUNE EARTHQUAKE RELIEF FUND

11 MPs expelled from Parliament
BJP stages walkout in Lok Sabha, says procedure not adopted
New Delhi, December 23
Notwithstanding the disquiet in certain sections across the political spectrum, Parliament took the extreme step today of expelling 11 members — 10 from the Lok Sabha and a lone Rajya Sabha MP — for their involvement in the cash-for-questions scam.

Editorial: Good riddance
Nation page: Discontent among MPs all around

Regulate sting operations, says ethics panel
New Delhi, December 23
The Rajya Sabha Committee on Ethics, which probed into the cash-for-query scam and recommended expulsion of BJP MP Chhattrapal Singh Lodha from the membership of the House, has called for regulating under-cover operations.

Centre accepts report on state funding
of poll
New Delhi, December 23
In an attempt to reform the democratic process, the Congress-led UPA government while accepting the late Indrajit Gupta Committee report on the state funding of elections has urged the Election Commission to consult the political parties on the issue.

Ministers fight over bid for airport work
New Delhi, December 23
A complete division has emerged in the empowered group of ministers set up to deal with the vexed restructuring of the Delhi and Mumbai airports.

Blast outside high-security airport area
Srinagar, December 23
An Improvised Explosive Device planted in a vehicle exploded prematurely outside the high-security technical area of the airport here today. In other militancy-related incidents across the state a top militant commander and a Pakistani infiltrator were killed overnight.

Narkanda, 65 km from Shimla, had season’s first snowfall on Friday. — Photo by Anil Dayal Himachal page: Snow in Shimla; 2 more die of cold

Major power failure in northern region Chandigarh/New Delhi, Dec 23 Entire Punjab, large parts of Haryana, Chandigarh, parts Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir went without power for more than eight hours following a major snag in the transmission system of the northern power grid today.	Entire North India without power Services restored after eight hours First major fault in the northern grid since January, 2001 Trains come to halt Hospitals struggle to provide services Punjab page:Dirty insulating discs may have caused power failure
Haryana page: Power failure, fog hit train traffic Power failure hits life in state Himachal page: State plunges into darkness Ludhiana page: Industry suffers heavy losses due to power failure Chandigarh page: Grid failure throws life out of gear

Sensex crashes by 115 points
Mumbai, December 23
Sensex crashed more than 115 points today as FIIs embarked on a profit-booking spree offloading stocks. After hitting a high of 9,442 points during intra-day trade, the index ended at 9,256.91, a huge setback of 115.39 points. The Nifty too slipped 1.1 per cent or 30 points ending at 2,804 levels. Today’s major losers were HDFC, NTPC, Tata Steel, Reliance Energy and Tata Power, while gainers included ICICI Bank, Wipro, Larsen & Toubro, Ranbaxy Laboratories and ONGC. — TNS