Thursday, August 31, 2006, Chandigarh, India
Updated at 3:00 am (IST)

Baluchistan cut off
Agitators seal main highway to Pak

Quetta, August 30 As a direct fallout of last Saturday’s killing of Baluch leader Akbar Khan Bugti, the agitation in Baluchistan is now spreading, and today, the main RCD Highway connecting Baluchistan to the rest of Pakistan was sealed by protesting Baluchis.	People walk on a rock-littered key highway which was blocked by angry Baluchis during a protest in Hub on Wednesday. — AFP photo
In video (56k)   World page ‘Cluster bombs’ killed Bugti Two grandsons declare war Opinions page: Musharraf isolated

Killer Drain IV — Special Tribune Investigation
Metals seeping into farm soil
New PAU study dares officials to act fast
Ludhiana, August 30

Soil chemists from Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) have more bad news. Only a while ago they had shown that the concentration of heavy metals like lead, chromium, cadmium and nickel in the groundwater around Budda Nullah was 21, 133, 280 and 300 times higher, respectively, than the permissible limits.

This is a sample of the toxic industrial waste which thousands of units in Ludhiana discharge daily into the Budda Nullah. The nullah finds its way to Harike through the Sutlej. — Tribune photo by Sayeed Ahmed Editorial: The killer drain

Quota limit pleas sent to 9-Judge Bench
New Delhi, August 30
The Supreme Court today referred to a nine-judge constitution Bench a bunch of petitions challenging state assemblies' powers to pass laws to circumvent its orders and Parliament, subsequently placing the same in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution to take them away from judicial review.

30 pc reinvestment in defence deals
New Delhi, August 30
Unveiling its new defence procurement policy, the government today mandated a reinvestment in the country of 30 per cent of all defence deals of more than Rs 3 billion, coupled with providing a level playing field for indigenous manufacturers and their foreign counterparts.

No time frame for Agni III trials

Volunteers and Army men carry out a body recovery operation in Barmer district of Rajasthan on Wednesday following floods that claimed at least 150 lives in the past week. — AFP

A Tribune Special
DGP asks his men to mend ways
Fires letter to all SSPs
Chandigarh, August 30
It is now official. Political interference, political alignments and money power are crippling the functioning of the Punjab Police. The Director-General of Police, Mr S.S. Virk, has shot off a highly confidential letter to all SSPs in the state, pulling them up for entertaining such interference in their day-to-day operations at the district level.

5 killed as bus falls into nullah
Hamirpur, August 30
Five passengers were killed and 40 others injured,10 seriously, when the private bus in which they were travelling, plunged into a 40-foot-deep nullah on the Hamirpur-Jahu road, in Bohni area, 6 km from here, around 9.30 a.m. today.

Cong CMs’ conclave to focus on farm sector
New Delhi, August 30
The ongoing controversy regarding the impact of the proposed special economic zones (SEZ) on agriculture and farmers is expected get top billing at next month’s meeting of Congress chief ministers.

Favouritism at PMO! CSB recommendations overruled New Delhi, August 30 The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has been overruling recommendations of the Central Services Board (CSB) for empanelment as Joint Secretaries and Additional Secretaries at the Centre and has been substituting those with names of its favourites.