Karnataka optimistic
The Karnataka Government has not received any concrete information about the effort by the team of emissaries to secure the release of the matinee idol, Mr. Rajkumar, and two others from the brigand Veerappan's captivity.

U.S. planning strikes against Osama?
Is the United States planning to strike once again at the bases of the Saudi dissident, Osama bin Laden, in Afghanistan?

Adequate relief for States, says PM
The Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, today said the State Governments would not face any serious handicap due to the abolition of the National Fund for Calamity Relief or non- constitution of the National Calamity Contingency Fund as they had been assured of adequate resources to tackle natural calamities.

RDX haul in Delhi, 2 held
A record 30 kg of lethal RDX and sophisticated timer devices were seized from two terrorists in a swift operation carried out jointly by detectives of the Central Bureau of Investigation and Delhi police in the Capital on Saturday night.

Integrate with the culture of the land, Sudarshan tells minorities
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) continued from where it left at Nagpur, sounding the minorities, especially the Christians, on its latest theme of ``Indianisation'' of their religious order while rejecting the present economic policies as being unsuitable for the country's growth and advocating a `Swadeshi' model instead.

Time of waiting at the WTO
Close to a year after the failure of the third ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the many differences that led to the `Seattle debacle' remain unresolved though some of the more controversial issues are making a back-door entry into global trading practices through bilateral and regional agreements.

Bush against sanctions, will not impose CTBT
The U.S. Presidential candidate of the Republican party, Mr. George Bush, has said that if elected he would not press India to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and favoured the immediate lifting of all sanctions against India, the visiting Congress leader, Mr. Murli Deora, and the chairman of Ethnic Republican in Detroit, Mr. Raj Bothra, who met Mr. Bush in Detroit yesterday, said.