Speaker names 32 unruly MPs
New Delhi, May 1
Days after the Rajya Sabha chairman evicted a member from the House for disorderly behaviour, it was the turn of Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee to crack the whip. In an unusual and unprecedented move, an exasperated Speaker today referred the cases of 32 MPs to the Privileges Committee for their conduct, which was found to be in violation of the rules.

Ab Tak 32
Editorial: Privileges and duties

Fire in fields, 3 burnt alive
Bathinda, May 1
Three persons were burnt alive and at least 10 injured due to fires that engulfed agricultural fields in 50 villages of the Malwa belt of Punjab today. The worst damage was in Muktsar where three persons lost their lives and four children received burns.

Gurjant Singh shows the burnt wheat crop in his field at Gairi Butte village near Bathinda on Thursday. — Tribune photo by Kulbir Beera

Tribune Special
Army dissatisfied over pay panel report
New Delhi, May 1
Army commanders have conveyed to defence minister A. K Antony that the Army is expecting better wages and status or it could have serious repercussions on the morale of the officers and the jawans, who are “dis-satisfied” with what has been suggested by the 6th pay panel.

AI executive wins case against UK newspaper
London, May 1
A senior Air India executive has won a libel case against a British eveninger over false accusations that he sexually harassed a female colleague and was a “serial sex pest”.

Time’s Most Influential
Sonia, Dalai Lama, Tata, Putin in list
New York, May 1
Sonia Gandhi, chief of India’s key ruling alliance member the Congress Party, and Ratan Tata, who heads one of the country’s top business houses, have been named in a list of 100 most influential in the world by Time magazine.

India assures Canada on Blackberry
New Delhi, May 1
In an apparent effort to keep the sensitive “Blackberry” issue from ballooning into a diplomatic row, India has gone ahead and assured Canada that, commercial interests of RIM, the maker of Blackberry, would be kept in mind while taking any final decision.

Haryana ‘grace’fully raises its standard of education
Chandigarh, May 1
The Haryana Education Department certainly knows how to keep up the standard of education in the state. The board has awarded a whopping 33 grace marks to Class VIII students to make sure that 2008 being observed as the “Year of Education” by the Haryana government is a success.

‘Water bank’ is running dry, it’s up to MLAs now Dehra Dun, May 1 Climate change and reckless construction have dried up the “Water Bank” of the country — Uttarakhand. It is home to two major rivers that quench the thirst of millions in plains. But, this year, a large number of water sources for rural areas of the state are fast drying up and most of the rain-fed rivers have become near-dry. A women carrying a can of water on her back in Garhwal Himalayas. — Photo by S M A Kazmi