Sensex closes below 15K
Beardozed
951-pt fall in global rout
Mumbai, March 17
Bears ruled the roost in stock markets today with benchmark Sensex crashing by over 950 points to close below 15K level on an onslaught of selling, triggered by global gloom, which crumbled many a heavyweight stock, including market leader Reliance Industries.

Fed up, Taslima to leave India
‘I can’t, I can’t, I can’t’
Kolkata, March 17
“I can’t take it any more. I will die if I continue to live like this,” Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen said today in a choked voice as she announced her decision to leave India for medical treatment abroad.

Tibet Unrest
China denies using brute force
Beijing, March 17
Fending off mounting global pressure, China today said it had shown “maximum restraint” without using brute force to quell the fiercest monks-led pro-independence protests in two decades in Tibetan capital Lhasa last week that claimed at least 13 lives.

60 Tibetans detained in Delhi
Police beats protesters
CPM silent on crackdown
Resolve issue through dialogue: Pranab

N-Deal Meeting
Govt fails to woo adamant Left
New Delhi, March 17
The meeting of the UPA-Left committee on the Indo-US nuclear deal today remained inconclusive as neither side appeared keen on precipitating matters. The UPA bought time from the Left leaders who said they needed to study the outcome of the safeguards agreement negotiated with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) which was tabled by the government at today’s meeting.

Pranab our saviour, says Buddha

Six killed in HP landslide
Manali, March 17
At least six persons were killed and eight injured when a huge rock rolled down from the Nehru Kund hill on the Manali-Rohtang highway, about 5 km from here, this evening. The death toll could be higher as the debris brought down by the slide was spread over a large area.

Punjab budget 08-09: Bland
Poll code, lack of SAD-BJP consensus key factors
Chandigarh, March 17
The state budget, with estimated revenue deficit of Rs 1,000.18 crore and fiscal deficit of Rs 4464.66 crore, presented for the next financial year (2008-09 ) in the Punjab Assembly by finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal today proved to be a bland exercise.

Govt speaks for Sarabjit New Delhi, March 17 Efforts to seek reprieve for Sarabjit Singh, who faces execution on April 1 in Pakistan, intensified today with India hoping that Pakistan will show “some leniency” as his sister made a desperate plea to the government to save her “innocent brother”. The Punjab Assembly passed a resolution unanimously asking Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take up Sarabjit’s issue with Islamabad. SISTER’S AGONY: Dalbir Kaur, sister of Sarabjit Singh, after a meeting with Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi on Monday. — Tribune photos by Mukesh Aggarwal