PMO distances itself from Cyber Space group
The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) today sought to distance itself from the scam-accused Johari group of Lucknow, promoters of Cyber Space Infosys Limited and Century Consultants Limited.

Pak. invitation this week
Pakistan will send a formal invitation to the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, some time this week to visit Islamabad ``at the earliest'' to pick up the threads from Agra and build on the understanding arrived at in the course of the summit level talks on July 15 and 16.

Indo-Pak. talks likely in Colombo
Less than a month after the Agra summit, India and Pakistan are expected to re-establish high-level official contacts at Colombo.

Tell-tale tapes suggest false cases?
Secretly-taped telephone conversations - said to be between two IAS-level officials in the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Ms. Jayalalithaa's office and an accused on the run - form the main body of the evidence of a writ petition filed in the Supreme Court late this afternoon.

Zhu to visit India later this year
Senior officials from India and China will meet next week in Beijing to review progress in the talks to resolve the boundary dispute as well as a range of bilateral, regional and international issues of common interest.

Reprieve for Laloo
The Supreme Court today extended till August 27 its order of stay of arrest of Mr. Laloo Prasad Yadav, former Bihar Chief Minister, in certain ``fodder-related scam cases'' in which charge-sheet had been filed before a special court, Ranchi (Jharkhand).

Rajagopalan is new NSG chief
Mr. R. Rajagopalan has been appointed Director- General of the National Security Guards (NSG). Belonging to the Tamil Nadu cadre of the 1965 batch of IPS, Mr. Rajagopalan was till recently heading the Tamil Nadu Police.

Padmanabhaiah meets Muivah
The Centre's interlocutor for the Naga accord, Mr. K. Padmanabhaiah, held a few rounds of discussions with the NSCN (I-M) leader, Mr. Thuingaleng Muivah, in Amsterdam following the Government's decision to review the truce extension accord in its entirety.

Megawati new President; Parliament votes out Wahid
Megawati Sukarnoputri took over as the fifth President of Indonesia after the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) unanimously voted today to oust Mr. Abdurrahman Wahid from the country's top job.

U.K. plea for clemency to Bleach turned down
India has turned down the British plea for granting clemency to Mr. Peter Bleach, a key accused in the December 1995 Purulia arms drop case.