Monday, November 13, 2006, Chandigarh, India
Updated at 3:00 am (IST)

Sino-Indian special talks cancelled
New Delhi, November 12
The Sino-Indian special representatives-level talks between National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan and his Chinese counterpart Dai Bingguo have been cancelled, sources told this correspondent today. The development signifies that relations between the two Asian giants and most populous countries on earth are not as rosy as the bilateral annual trade figures of over $ 20 billion suggest.

Seven mowed down in Mumbai
Mumbai, November 12
Seven persons, including two children, were killed in the wee hours of today when a drunken youth drove a Toyota Corrola on pavement dwellers who were sleeping in the Carter road area of Bandra. In video (56k)

A woman consoles an aggrieved relative of the victim of the Carter Road car accident, in Bandra, Mumbai, on Sunday. Seven persons were killed and when a car rammed into shacks where labourers were staying with their families. — PTI photo

Amarinder ends Vikas Yatra
Area seeping in poverty, underdevelopment
Pucca Kalan/Talwandi Sabo, November 12
It was literally a paradox. On the one hand was Punjab Chief Minister’s enormous fleet of vehicles and men symbolising the Vikas Yatra. On the other were clusters of dilapidated houses and lives symbolising underdevelopment.

Sidelights   Captain Amarinder Singh has a meal at Sekhon village in Bathinda district during his ongoing Punjab Vikas Yatra on Sunday. — Tribune photo by Parvesh Chauhan

For a job in Punjab, do girls need more marks?
Chandigarh, November 12
“My candidature for job of an economics teacher in the Punjab School Education Department has been rejected because I am a female,” says Ms Ashok Kumari (not her real name) of Rama Mandi in Bathinda.

States fail to use surplus funds
New Delhi, November 12
There is both a good and a bad news from the states. The good one is that the days of resource crunch are now a history. Perennially in the red until a few years ago, all states, except Kerala, have fairly large cash holdings today.

Kin of PM, Atal, Sonia to get Z-security
New Delhi, November 12
Keeping in view the enhanced abduction threat from Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed, the Centre has decided to provide maximum security to the kin of VVIPs, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Sonia Gandhi.

Mother’s love traverses 52 yrs of Partition Islamabad, November 12 A Sikh woman from Mumbai has been reunited with her two sons in Pakistan after 52 years. Her children, born of a Muslim father, have appealed to the Pakistan Government to let their mother stay on.