Special to the tribune
UK scraps contentious visa bond plan to check overstay
Meant for visitors from ‘high-risk’ India, Pakistan
The British Government has decided to abandon a controversial plan requiring visitors from India and some other countries to pay a £3,000 (Rs 2.9 lakh) bond before obtaining a visa to enter the UK. The pilot project targeting visitors from India, Pakistan, Nigeria and other Commonwealth countries, due to be introduced later this month, would have demanded a returnable cash surety or bond as a pre-requisite for a visa. The principle behind the scheme was to deter visitors from staying on in the UK after the expiry of their short-term visas.

Editorial Page: A welcome move
Cheer among Punjab travellers

PM’s Lanka dilemma: To go or not to go for CHOGM
Manmohan caught between political and diplomatic compulsions 
New Delhi, October 4
It’s a catch-22 situation for the UPA government at the Centre. With rival political parties in Tamil Nadu indulging in a game of one-upmanship to demand boycott of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Tamil Nadu over alleged war crimes against Lankan Tamils, India’s foreign policy threatens to yet again become a hostage to petty domestic politics.

Never questioned J-K's accession to India: Omar
Jammu, November 4
Under attack from coalition partner the Congress and the Opposition BJP for repeatedly raking up the issue of accession, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today said he had never used words such as “conditional” and “incomplete” with regard to the accession of Jammu and Kashmir to the Indian Union.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah addresses mediapersons in Jammu on Monday. Tribune photo: Inderjeet Singh

Double trouble for Yamunotri temple
Mussoorie, November 4
While the Kedarnath shrine, which saw large-scale devastation during the June deluge, still remains under focus, double trouble brews at the Yamunotri temple as several cracks have appeared in the structure of the shrine. Erosion by the river under the complex and falling rocks from the Kaindi Parvat have left gaping holes across the complex.

Advance tax levy leaves Punjab traders fuming
Chandigarh, November 4
The Punjab Value Added Tax (Second Amendment) Bill, 2013, passed by the Punjab Vidhan Sabha that paves the way for the state to collect tax in advance from traders and manufacturers, has created a fear psychosis in the mind of businessmen

Haryana’s shame: analysis
Speedy justice and alert police can deter rapists
Chandigarh, November 4
Their stories are all different yet they share the same fate. Be it Hisar, Jind, Fatehabad or Yamunanagar, the victims of rape are condemned to bear the cross and are stigmatised as “accused” even one year after the horrifying incidents as was shown by the series carried recently in The Tribune.