Tuesday, October 16, 2007, Chandigarh, India
Updated at 3:00 am (IST)

Ludhiana Blast Police clueless; 25 questioned Ludhiana, October 15 Twenty hours after the Shingar blast, the police remains clueless about the accused, the kind of explosives and the mode of triggering the blast even as the top brass of the Punjab Police and intelligence agencies are camping here, trying to gather leads from the site or their sources. Babbar Khalsa, HuJI main suspects Calls to Pak being checked Do ‘red’ or ‘high’ alerts mean anything? Editorial: Terror at Ludhiana

This board outside Shingar cinema in Ludhiana seemed to have been of no use as pieces of bags and suticases were found strewn around in the blast site. The explosives could have been carried in the bags. — Photo by Inderjeet Verma

N-Deal
PM speaks to Bush about difficulties
Abuja, October 15
With the UPA government virtually putting on hold the Indo-US nuclear deal, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today talked to US President George W. Bush and told him that there were difficulties in operationalising the deal.
Mulford meets Pranab, expresses concern on N-deal delays

Poll dates in HP
Cong, BJP move EC
New Delhi, October 15
Caught off guard by the announcement of the poll schedule in Himachal Pradesh, the state unit of the Congress, led by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and party’s state in charge R.K. Dhawan, today lodged a strong protest with the Election Commission and demanded that the decision should be reviewed.

EC transfers Gujarat DGP
New Delhi, October 15
In a move to conduct free and fair elections in Gujarat, the Election Commission today ordered the transfer of the state director-general of police (DGP) P.C.Pandey and seven others with immediate effect. The three-member poll panel ordered the transfer of eight senior police officials from election-related duties in the state, which goes to the polls in two phases on December 11 and 16.

Tsunami warning system inaugurated; alert in 13 minutes
Hyderabad, October 15
Nearly 400 million persons living in coastal areas of the country will feel more assured about their safety as the government has put in place a state-of-the-art national tsunami warning system to provide timely advisories. The system, set up at the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Hyderabad, can tell within 13 minutes of occurrence of an earthquake in the Indian Ocean whether it will lead to a tsunami.

Threat to blow up NSE, BSE
Mumbai, October 15
An anonymous e-mail threatening to blow up the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange was received today, prompting the police to step up security at the key buildings here.

Close shave for Indian, Aussie cricketers
Nagpur, October 15
A Jet Airways plane carrying Australian and Indian cricketers made an emergency landing here after it was hit by a bird 10 minutes after take off this morning. Five blades of the second engine of the Nagpur-Mumbai flight were damaged by the bird-hit, airport sources said. The flight made an emergency landing within 10 minutes of take off due to the technical snag, the sources said adding all passengers were safe.

Maya is among eight top women leaders of world New York, October 15 Buoyed by her electoral win in Uttar Pradesh, BSP chief Mayawati is now aiming to capture power at the Centre by replicating her “winning formula”. Mayawati (51) had been profiled by the US magazine Newsweek as one of the eight outstanding women leaders worldwide to reach the top despite all odds.