Latest news, updated at 5:00 pm Govt confident of tabling Lokpal Bill in winter session...more Extend winter session: Anna...more Oppn clamours for Chidambaram's resignation...more WB hooch tragedy: Toll rises to 121...more US House passes legislation to freeze aid to Pakistan...more French court finds Chirac guilty of corruption...more

Stalemate continues on Lokpal
n No consensus at all-party meet
n Left, Right on same page on inclusion of PM
New Delhi, December 14
After arriving at a broad agreement with the UPA allies on the final shape of the Lokpal Bill, the all-party meeting called by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh tonight failed to forge a consensus on key provisions of the proposed legislation.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, flanked by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Union ministers at an all-party meeting in New Delhi on Wednesday. — PTI

Bound by norms, can’t reveal foreign a/c holders’ names: FM
But promises White Paper on black money; Advani’s adjournment motion defeated
New Delhi, December 14
It’s now official. The government has names of 36,000 Indians holding foreign bank accounts but won’t disclose them merely to satisfy the inquisitiveness of parliamentarians.

Special to The Tribune
Murder trial reveals ‘racist’ face of UK
At a time when racism seems to be part of a more distant and less pleasant era, an ongoing trial in London has reminded Indians and other non-white members in Britain just what it used to mean to have a different type of skin.

568 militants give up arms in Assam
With their outfit getting disbanded, the Karbi tribals are set to form a political party
Diphu (Assam), December 14
All 568 militants of the United People’s Democratic Solidarity (UPDS), a Karbi tribe insurgent group, today pledged to give up violence and surrendered weapons as an immediate consequence to a peace accord signed with the Government of India on November 25.

Longsidar Senar, chairman of Karbi militants’ outfit United People’s Democratic Solidarity (UPDS), shakes hands with an Army officer while giving up arms. — PTI

Petrol prices may go up as rupee’s freefall continues
New Delhi, December 14
Petrol prices may be hiked by Re 0.65 a litre this week, if state-owned oil firms manage to get a political approval for the move.

Business page: Economic gloom deepens as weak rupee fuels inflation

Spurious liquor kills 57 in Bengal
Canning (WB), December 14
In one of the worst hooch tragedies in West Bengal, 57 persons, mostly labourers, rickshaw-pullers and hawkers, died and over 100 were hospitalised in serious condition after consuming illicit liquor at Mograhat in South 24 Parganas district today.