Polls on mind, govt woos rural households
New Delhi, July 31
Having survived the recent trust vote in Parliament but still not sure whether the present UPA coalition would last its full term till next year, the Congress-led government today released Rs 1,500 crore for augmenting two schemes of the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) targeted at women and rural landless households.

Rs 17,033 cr for power reforms

Ishmeet drowned: Autopsy
Ludhiana, July 31
The post-mortem examination of Ishmeet Singh done by a board of three doctors in civil hospital here this noon said he died of asphyxia caused due to drowning but it was for the police to ascertain if it was an accident or there was some foul play.

Punjab page: Tearful adieu to Ishmeet
Editorial: Ishmeet Singh
Ludhiana page: Goodbye my son

Mosquitoes fan out in power-less Punjab
Samrala, July 31
Mosquitoes in the countryside have become a nightmare as rural Punjab remains without power most of the time in day and at night.

Baljinder Singh and his family seek comfort from oppressive heat with hand fans under a tree at Jatana Uchha village, near Samrala, on Thursday. — Tribune photo by Manoj Mahajan

IAEA meets today
Will Pak become Chinese wall?
New Delhi, July 31
On the eve of the crucial meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors in Vienna, the government was today hopeful that Pakistan would not prove to be a stumbling block and go by the consensus in approving the India-specific safeguards agreement by the global nuclear watchdog.

Nation page: Delhi unsure on Chinese response

SAARC Summit
PM leaves for Colombo today
New Delhi, July 31
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh leaves here tomorrow for Colombo to attend the 15th SAARC summit, which is expected to come out strongly against the scourge of terrorism that has impeded the economic progress of South Asia.

Himachal police chief is CBI director
New Delhi, July 31
Ashwani Kumar, a 1973 batch Himachal Pradesh cadre Indian Police Service officer, was today appointed the new director of the Central Bureau of Investigation, the nation’s premier investigation agency.

Amte couple win Magsaysay award for tribal uplift
Kuala Lumpur, July 31
India’s philanthropist doctor couple, Prakash and Mandakini Amte, were today declared winners of the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay award for their contribution towards improving the lives of tribals in a remote Maharashtra village.

I SPIED ‘We were real-time & ferried vital info’ Dadwan (Gurdaspur), July 31 A former spy of Dadwan claims there is an underground jail in the Chakala airport premises near Islamabad which still houses prisoner of war (POWs) from the 1971 conflict. Former spy Sunil Bhola, who is among the latest batch of the spies to be repatriated to India from Pakistan (December 2006), claims he gave this information to his Indian handlers in the Military Intelligence.