America's General
Pakistan takes its most crucial decision since the 1971 war — to side with the US against the Taliban. The clerics may protest, but Musharraf has few options.

ECONOMIC IMPACT
Where Are We Going?
Fear and uncertainty stalk the Indian economy as early damages begin to show.

Ready For Battle
Where will the US strike, with what and how? A report on the military options before the global coalition that the Americans are building against terrorism.

Shifting Stance
Indian foreign policy is in a flux following the terrorist strikes in the US, metamorphosing in tandem with the tectonic shift in the geopolitical landscape of the world.

Menace In The Mind
People like bin Laden are not so much politicising religion as religionising politics.

EYECATCHERS

Neck Deep In Funds

Maybe it is a novel way to drum up party funds. When Govindavaasan, new president of the Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) and son of late TMC leader G.K. Moopanar, drove up to the party's Sathyamoorthi Bhavan office in Chennai last week, there was a surprise waiting for him. Well-wishers and senior party leaders greeted him with a 37-ft-long-he's 37, that's why-garland stringed together with Rs 500 notes that added up to Rs 5 lakh. The party's youth leaders also gifted him a silver sword. But why make such a big deal about it, ask partymen. "As well-wishers, some of us wanted to make donations to the party. We chose to do it with a garland," says senior party leader S.R. Balasubramaniam. To more multiple-lakh gestures then.

Desert Ditty

It was only a few months ago that he sang Kabhi To Nazar Milao with Asha Bhosle. Today, pop singer Adnan Sami must be singing those same lines to new bride Saba Galadhari, daughter of a Dubai industrialist. Sami married Galadhari at a lavish ceremony in Dubai last week, and has reportedly been friends with her a long time. He has a son Azaan from his former wife, Pakistani film star Zeba Bakhtiar (Henna). Sami, who's holidaying in Dubai, has Magnasound, the recording company he has signed a contract with, hoping he will return with more romantic numbers.

Boycott Geoffrey?

Geoffrey "Roobish" Boycott's aura is wearing off. Popular in India even as his own country shelved him after his girlfriend took him to court for assault, the blunt-talking Yorkshireman seems to be slowly losing brownie points here. At a recent bash in Delhi, Boycott couldn't bring himself to utter a civil sentence to anyone who merely wanted to chat. Bollywood rumours say he has been trying very hard to track down actor Shilpa Shetty's phone number. Given a dodgy record with the ladies, it doesn't look like he's going to get it in a hurry. As for colourful commentary and a telegenic perso-nality, there are many now who could pip him at his post in the commentary box.

Knotty Affairs

Maybe Aditi Govitrikar and Noyonika Chatterjee set a trend — that you could be married and walking the ramp at the same time. August saw dusky Bangalore — bred ramp regulars Vidisha Pavate and Nethra Raghuraman tying the knot. Pavate wed Australian photographer Darren Centofanti.Last Thursday, leggy model Joey Mathews, who no Delhi ramp can seem to do without, followed suit. It was "a very private family function", says husband and live-in boyfriend of six years V. Sunil, who is also creative director of o & m, Delhi. "We deliberately kept out the word wedding from our invitation card. And simply put it down as a big annual bash instead." Pity nobody called the press.

Constant suspicion, poverty, ill-health and lack of work dog Afghan asylum seekers in India. INDIA TODAY's Principal Correspondent Anna M.M. Vetticad meets some of them.
Living On The Edge