EC freezes NCP's `charkha' symbol
The Election Commission today rejected the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party's plea for allotment of the "charkha'' symbol and ordered that it be frozen.

PM ends Nitish's agony, accepts resignation
The suspense over the resignation of Railway Minister Nitish Kumar from the Union Cabinet ended tonight with its acceptance by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, who has decided to keep the portfolio with himself.

Missionary deaths -- Hindu outfits get clean chit
The Wadhwa Commission, which probed the gruesome murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons in Orissa in January, is understood to have ruled out the involvement of any Hindu outfit in the crime.

Letters to the editor

LEISURE
Lean, mean designer machine
  Running Amuck

SPORTS
Sotomayor faces two-year suspension
  Mongia takes Azhar route, rules self out

EXPRESSIONS
Disease called destiny
  Two cultures and the intelligentsia -- The twain must meet

BUSINESS
VSNL cuts internet rates by 15%
  SBI proposes M&A financing

GENERAL
Shekhar Kapur's film-making tips for the censors
  When the valley waited for the river child

POLITICS
MDMK-DMK talks on tie-up deferred
  CPM candidates list for LS, State elections out