Talks positive, PM to visit Pak
Foreign ministers of Pakistan and India on Wednesday agreed to carry forward the composite dialogue and hold the fifth round on an eight-point agenda, which includes Kashmir, trade and anti-terrorism, in mid-July.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf during talks with External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee at a meeting in Islamabad on Wednesday. — AFP photo

Army protests Poonch firing
Jammu, May 21
A day after Islamabad gave an assurance that it was committed to maintaining ceasefire, the Army today lodged a strong protest with its Pakistani counterparts over Monday's unprovoked cross-border firing at a forward post in Poonch sector in the state.

Red Alert: Trinamool bags Singur, Nandigram
Kolkata, May 21
The CPM was routed at Singur and Nandigram where Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had experimented his rapid industrialisation policy with private investment by forcibly acquiring the farm lands.   Mamata Banerjee

Under attack, SBI resumes farm loans
New Delhi, May 21
The State Bank of India (SBI) was forced to withdraw its controversial May 16 circular suspending new loans for tractors and farm mechanisation instruments after it was pulled up by finance minister P.Chidambaram.

Akali MLA plays hide and seek on poll-eve
Amritsar, May 21
Manjinder Singh Kang, MLA from Beas, who today played hide and seek with the party leadership, was admitted to Escorts Hospital here due to some minor heart problem late in the evening.         M.S. Kang

EC pulls up Amritsar ex-DC
New Delhi, May 21
After getting Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to pay for the use of official helicopter for election work, the Election Commission (EC) today pulled up the recently removed Amritsar Deputy Commissioner K.S. Pannu for submitting wrong information to the commission. The EC today said Pannu, before he was removed as the Deputy Commissioner of Amritsar, in his reports stated that the Chief Minister of Punjab never visited Amritsar (South) Assembly constituency by helicopter and stated that he came to Amritsar by road.

Bogus votes cancelled
Punjab page: Complaints Against Gram Panchayat Polls
EC orders shifting of DSP, SHO

Five key byelections in region today Chandigarh, May 21 Polling for three assembly byelections in Haryana, one in Punjab and one Lok Sabha byelection in Himachal Pradesh will take place tomorrow. In Haryana, the byelections for Gohana, Adampur and Indri constituencies have been necessitated after their sitting MLAs, Dharampal Malik, Bhajan Lal and Rakesh Kamboj, were disqualified by the Speaker after their defection from the Congress to the Haryana Janhit Congress floated by Bhajan Lal’s son Kuldeep Bishnoi.