• Indian-born astronaut Kalpana Chawla and six others, returning to earth after a 16-day mission, are killed as space shuttle Columbia bursts into flames and breaks into pieces at a height of 63,000 metres, 16 minutes before it was to land at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. Born in Karnal in Haryana, 42-year-old Kalpana was on her second space mission in five years. A week into the tragedy, NASA is yet to identify the reason for the shuttle break-up. • The diplomatic war between India and Pakistan is touches dangerous heights. India expels Pakistan’s Charge D’Affaires in New Delhi, Jalil Abbas Jilani, and four staff members of the High Commission two days after he was accused of funding separatist activities in Jammu and Kashmir. Within hours, Islamabad follows suit by expelling the Indian charge D’Affairs Sudhir Vyas amd four others.• Authorities in Dubai first arrest and then release key associates of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, including his brothers Noora and Mushtakeen. The Dubai police had picked up at least 115 persons as part of investigations into the recent murder of Dawood aide Sharad Shetty, who was also reportedly running a cricket betting racket. It begins to dawn on a clueless Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) that Dubai had cracked the whip on the Indian gangsters in order to curb the betting racket, which is more than flourishing with cricket World Cup round the corner. • With an angry Opposition uniting to announce a no-confidence motion against her government as and when the Uttar Pradesh Assembly meets, Chief Minister springs up a surprise. She engineers another split, this time in the eight member breakaway Congress group which pledged her support last week. Four from the ABCD group, the Akhil Bharatiya Congress Dal, formally joins the BSP and are sworn in as ministers. As all the rest of the ABCD gang is absorbed into the BSP, Mayawati leaves only Akhilesh Singh, who led seven MLAs out of the Congress to form the ABCD, in the lurch. • Sparks of Ayodhya fly high once again as Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee meet Kanchi Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati to discuss the Ayodhya issue. On the same day, the government moves the Supreme Court to vacate its order banning religious activity in the 67 acres acquired after the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992. • Playing tapes and flashing satellite pictures to “prove” that the Iraqi military had conspired to conceal banned weapons from UN weapons inspectors, the US Secretary of State Colin Powell tells a largely-unconvinced UN that leaving Saddam Hussain unopposed is not an option in the post-September 11 world. In a high-stakes address to win over skeptical countries to the American side, Powell urges the United Nations not to shrink from disarming Iraq if it wants to evade the danger of being irrelevant. He says Iraq is now in danger of suffering ‘‘serious consequences,’’ diplomatic code for the possibility of a US-led military invasion. • The week-long Indo-Bangla standoff ended on Thursday with Bangladesh accepting its 213 illegal immigrants stranded for a week in no-man’s land in the West Bengal border. Meanwhile, a Howrah court has sent 89 Bangladeshis, arrested last month on charges of illegally entering the country, to Judicial remand till February 18.• Two warm-up games with one loss — not the kind of preparation the Indians would have wanted. Confident skipper Saurav Ganguly dismissed as nothing but a wake-up call. And, as for England’s plea to shift their game out of Harare, the final verdict from ICC is sound and clear: Either they forfeit points or simply go and play in Zimbabwe. Meanwhile, it looks India are on way to winning the Davis Cup Group-I game against Japan, thanks to Leander Paes’s magic form.
