Saturday, October 13, 2007, Chandigarh, India
Updated at 3:00 am (IST)

PM: Failure of N-deal won’t be end of life
New Delhi, October 12
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi set at rest speculation about a possible snap poll by stressing that they would like the UPA government to last its full term till the mid 2009. While Dr Singh insisted that there will be no early elections and that the failure to carry through the Indo-US Nuclear deal will not be the end of life.

Pachauri’s IPCC, Gore share Nobel
Oslo, October 12
Former US vice-president Al Gore and the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to spread awareness of man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures needed to counteract it.

AL, THE ECO-WARRIOR Former US presidential candidate and ecologist Al Gore speaks in this July file photo during a press conference at Los Pinos presidential house in Mexico City. Gore, who has reinvented himself as a climate warrior since failing in his bid to become US president in 2000, said he was “deeply honored” by the award and spoke of the “planetary emergency” brought about by climate change. — AFP photo

Nobel gives climate change visibility: Pachauri
New Delhi, October 12
For Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change chairman R.K. Pachauri, the IPCC winning the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize is a recognition of the important linkage between climate change and global peace.

Grid collapse disrupts power supply in
north India
Chandigarh, October 12
The northern power grid collapsed around 12:50 pm today — the third such tripping since June this year — resulting in a massive disruption of power supply to the entire north India, impacting normal life across Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Chandigarh and some parts of Delhi.

HuJI may be behind blast
New Delhi, October 12
Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islami (HuJI), a militant outfit of Bangladesh, was suspected to be behind the blast at the sufi shrine of Khwaja Mohiuddin Chisti at Ajmer in which militants used a mixture Tri-Nitro Toluene as the explosive material, sources said.

Political constraints cripple growth: PM
New Delhi, October 12
Emphasising that the country is at the threshold of a new era of social and economic development, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh warned that the nation and the economy "will not move forward on their own while we dissipate our energies in meaningless controversies."
(Details on Business page)

Big Three rested for Challenger
New Delhi: India's top cricketers including the big three - Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid - will not take part in the upcoming NKP Salve Challenger Trophy with the selectors deciding to rest them in view of the busy calendar ahead. Apart from the three stalwarts, most of the other members of India's current ODI team such as Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh, Irfan Pathan, have also been rested from the limited overs tournament to be held from October 25 to 28.
(Details on Sports page)

Hiked MSP to pump Rs 4,500 cr into farm sector Chandigarh, October 12 Substantial increase in the minimum support price of wheat and paddy this year is likely to prove a life-saving dose for Punjab’s sagging agricultural economy. According to a rough estimate, the increase in the price of wheat and paddy will pump Rs 4,500 crore into the state’s agricultural economy in a period of nine months, starting from September this year to May next year.