Prabhakar present, no word from Azhar
Mr. K. Madhavan, former Joint Director, CBI, and appointed Special Commissioner of the BCCI to study the CBI report and issues of match-fixing, who began his two-day sitting here today said he was basically a fact finding commissioner to weigh the pros and cons of the CBI findings with regard to the misconduct of players and officials.

Nedumaran leaves for forest
The Tamils Nationalist Movement Leader, Mr. P. Nedumaran, changed his stance and set out for the forests tonight to renew negotiations with the brigand, Veerappan, for the release of Kannada actor, Mr. Rajkumar.

Stage set for Congress President election today
The Congress is scheduled to take yet another decisive step towards a kind of internal democracy when the organisation elects a new president tomorrow. A 9,000 plus electoral college is to choose between the incumbent, Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, and the challenger, Mr. Jitendra Prasada. The Congress thus becomes the only national party to go through an internal contest in which ballots are cast.

Republicans challenge handcount in 4 counties
The Republicans have challenged the handcount of votes, numbering about 2 million, in four Florida counties. The Bush campaign has moved a district court in south Florida.

Ablation again on Maran
The ailing Union Industries Minister, Mr. Murasoli Maran, was subjected to a second `septal ablation' procedure today.

'U.S. set toattack Osama'
The United States has positioned its naval ships a few miles away from the Pakistani coast, apparently to attack international terrorist Osama bin Laden's suspected hideouts in Afghanistan, media reports said here today.