Stage set for Florida vote certification
The Leon County Circuit Court judge, Mr. Terry Lewis, today ruled that the Florida Secretary of State, Ms. Katherine Harris, had exercised proper judgment in deciding to reject explanations of counties for delayed handcounts.

Deshmukh put on notice
The Maharashtra Chief Minister, Mr. Vilasrao Deshmukh, has been put on notice by the Congress high command. The reason: under performance and his growing proximity to the NCP chief, Mr. Sharad Pawar.

Punish STF men first: Nedumaran
Fiercely defending the bandit Veerappan, the Tamil Nationalist Movement leader, Mr. P. Nedumaran, today said no commando operation should be launched to pursue the brigand until the Special Task Force police personnel who perpetrated atrocities on the tribals were punished.

'Y' category security for Rajkumar
The Bangalore police have made arrangements to provide `Y' category security for the Kannada actor, Mr. Rajkumar, who was released by the forest brigand, Veerappan, on Wednesday after holding him hostage for 108 days.

Pak. for change in stand on Kashmir?
Mirwaiz Omar Farooq of the All Party Hurriyat Conference has claimed that Pakistan may be willing to change its position to the extant of being ready for a negotiated resolution of the Kashmir dispute instead of insisting on the implementation of UN resolutions especially its proviso for the holding of a plebiscite.

Bush happy with decision of Florida circuit judge
The Texas Governor, Mr. George W. Bush, is ``understandably pleased'' by the decision of a Florida circuit court judge to reject an attempt by the Gore Campaign to have manually counted votes included in the final tally of the presidential campaign.