People's victory: Patel
The Supreme Court's verdict today favouring construction of the Sardar Sarovar project triggered celebrations here. Crackers were burst and sweets distributed in the State Secretariat and a happy Chief Minister, Mr. Keshubhai Patel, declared a half-day special holiday for Government employees and schools in the capital. to celebrate the ``people's victory''.

A.P. bracing to face storm
The cyclonic storm, which today lay centered 350 km in the Bay of Bengal, east of Nellore, is likely to cross the coast between Nellore and Machilipatnam on Thursday.

Can detenus' release free hostages, asks SC
The Supreme Court today asked the Karnataka counsel how the State Government was sure that, on withdrawal of ``TADA charges'' against the 51 Veerappan associates as demanded by the forest brigand, the actor, Mr. Rajkumar, would be set free, when his (Veerappan's) other ``political demands were ignored''.

'Nedumaran not Karnataka's choice'
The Congress president, Ms. Sonia Gandhi, today said the Karnataka Government was not responsible for sending the Tamil Nationalists Movement leader, Mr. P. Nedumaran, to join Mr. R. R. Gopal, editor of Nakkeeran, to negotiate the release of the hostages held by the brigand Veerappan.

RSS outburst worries BJP minority morcha
Muslim members of the BJP's minority morcha today expressed concern over the adverse effect of the speeches made by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leaders at their Agra national security camp last weekend on their work to try and bring more Muslims closer to the party.

Defence Intelligence Agency on the anvil
After months of brainstorming, the armed forces are getting ready to establish a unified Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) as part of a revamped national intelligence set up.

Second Opposition Speaker in Sri Lanka
Mr. Anura Bandaranaike, who has been elected Speaker of Sri Lanka's 11th Parliament. is Sri Lanka's second Opposition Speaker. His election was hailed by the local media as a rapprochement between the People's Alliance(PA) and the UNP, and the first step in the possible formation of a national government.

India `resells' copters to Britain
India is reported to have sold back to Britain the entire fleet of the jinxed Westland helicopters, bought in a controversial deal during Rajiv Gandhi's regime in 1985 against expert technical advice.