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.

NEWSNOTES

	ECONOMY CLASS: Gavaskar (above) speaks up for ex-players like Umrigar (below)

Mumbai: In a letter to BCCI President A.C. Muthiah, cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar has demanded that the board treat ex-players better, instead of paying fat salaries to foreign consultants. The letter, dated September 11, 2000, came after Gavaskar read recently that former Test captain Polly Umrigar was given economy class airfare to attend a meeting of the National Cricket Academy committee in Bangalore. He said he was not making a case for ex-players, but "surely economy class travel can be avoided".

Gavaskar also brought up the issue of the board officials commandeering passes during international games in the country, giving ex-players a raw deal. (Ex-players get a single non-transferable ticket while ex-presidents get seven transferable ones.) He suggested that former players and administrators be treated on a par. Writes India's former cricket captain: "Surely those who have toiled and sweated for India deserve the same consideration if not more than those who have administered the game."

Copies of the letter have been circulated to all the affiliated state associations in the hope that these issues are taken up at the board's forthcoming annual general meeting. Muthiah will certainly have much to discuss.

Malice Gets Legal Nod

Delhi: Irrepressible octogenarian Khushwant Singh has been permitted a little malice after all. After six years of legal wrangling, last week the Delhi High Court allowed the writer to go ahead with the publication of his autobiography Truth, Love and a Little Malice. Many may be looking forward to reading it, but not Union Minister for Culture Maneka Gandhi. After the publication of extracts from the book in India Today in October 1995, Gandhi had filed defamation and injunction charges against Singh to "protect the fair name and respect of her family". Gandhi has been asked to pay Rs 10,000 as litigation cost to the man of wit and kisses. For her, Singh is certainly "not a nice man to know".

Unemployed, But Still Busy

Lucknow: Chief Minister Rajnath Singh had plenty of reasons to dismiss tourism minister Ashok Yadav: he has been absent from the Assembly, allegedly ran his department from Delhi, and had attacked Brahmin and Thakur leaders in the party. The last straw came when he had his brother file a petition in the Supreme Court against the state Government's MBC policy. Out of a job, Yadav is now busy projecting himself as a martyr to the cause of dominant backward castes.

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