Thursday, March 3, 2011, Chandigarh, India
Updated at 2:30 am (IST)

Pak minorities minister gunned down by radicals
Shahbaz Bhatti second official to be killed after Punjab Guv Taseer over blasphemy row in less than two months 
Federal Minister for Minority Affairs, Shahbaz Bhatti, was brutally murdered on Wednesday morning by unidentified assailants while on his way to attend a Cabinet meeting here.
Soft target
Bhatti knew his life was in danger (World page)
In this file photo of a press conference in 2005, Bhatti shows a cross, which was burned during an attack on a church in central Punjab province. — Reuters

President’s nod to prosecute Justice Yadav in land scam 
New Delhi, March 2
President Pratibha Patil has given a green signal to the CBI for prosecuting Uttarakhand High Court Justice Nirmal Yadav in connection with a land scam in Solan (Himachal Pradesh) during her tenure in the Punjab and Haryana High Court from November 2004 to February 2010. 
CBI awaits sanction for prosecution in 105 cases (Nation page)
The ‘ji’ that started it all (Nation page)

Won’t contest WB poll: Mamata
Kolkata, March 2
Springing a surprise, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee today said that she will not contest the elections in West Bengal but made it clear that she will lead the government in case her party wins and enter the Assembly within six months.

Gaddafi warns of ‘bloody war’ 
Cairo, March 2
A defiant Muammar Gaddafi today refused to give up power as he warned against any foreign intervention, saying it will lead to "a bloody war" in which "thousands of Libyans would die".
Chaos in Libya and panic on borders

Over 10,000 Indians still to be rescued 
New Delhi, March 2
Even as the escalating violence brings Libya closer to civil war, India is finding it difficult to evacuate its nationals — over 10,000 — stranded in the interiors of the Arab nation. Getting its acts together, India has organised a series of emergency flights to evacuate its nationals from Libya as part of the massive evacuation plan, called 'Operation Safe Homecoming'. A ferry has been sent to the Libyan port city of Benghazi, and three warships are also on their way to the Mediterranean.

Alone & helpless
Special IAF plane

Special to the tribune Lord Meghnad Desai caught in Gaddafi Junior’s PhD row  March 2 A prominent Indian academic in London has been caught in a controversy over alleged plagiarisation of a PhD thesis by Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s son.Last Tuesday, it was revealed that Lord Meghnad Desai, an emeritus professor of economics at the London School of Economics, was one of the examiners of the 429-page thesis by Saif al-Islam Gaddafi’s titled: “The Role of Civil Society in the Democratisation of Global Governance Institutions: From Soft Power to Collective Decision Making.”