Clinton's fate to be decided on Thursday: The Republican-led US House panel has passed a fourth and final impeachment article against President Clinton and rejected a Democrat-sponsored move to censure rather than impeach him, setting the stage for a full house vote on Thursday. The deeply polarised panel voted a motion 21-16 on Saturday charging Clinton with abusing the power of his office to make false and perjurious statements to Congress on the Monica Lewinsky case in reply to 81 questions put by chairman Henri Hyde.

BoB to up stake in Ugandaventure: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has permitted Bank of Baroda (BoB) to buy-out the entire stake of Uganda government in their joint venture Bank of Baroda (Uganda) Ltd. After the buy-out, BoB Uganda would become wholly owned by BoB. At present, the bank holds 51 per cent in the venture. The central bank has also allowed BoB to set up a subsidiary in Guyana in the Caribbean islands by converting its existing international branch there.

SAIL plans to close down Ranchi airbase: Steel Authority of India plans to sell two old aircraft following the decision of the management to close the Ranchi airbase and shift the aviation department to Burnpur in West Bengal. A SAIL source told that the decision to shift the aviation department from Ranchi to Burnpur was taken pursuant to the recommendations of a high-power committee constituted by SAIL corporate office on June 20, 1998, to study the public sector steel company's aviation policy and purchase of aircraft.

Eastern Coalfields to hikeprices: The Eastern Coalfields board has decided to hike the price of its coal across all the grades. The hike ranging from five per cent to 12.9 per cent, is designed to share the benefits of the reduced cess with the customer, according to sources at CIL headquarters in Calcutta.

GNFC to set up Rs 1,500 cr plant: The Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizer Company (GNFC) would set up a Rs 1,500-crore fertiliser plant in the state with a capacity to produce 1,350 mt ammonia and 2,330 mt urea annually. A proposal for the giant plant had been forwarded to the union government and it was expecting an early approval.

Inflation falls below 8% level: Annual rate of inflation fell below the eight per cent mark for the first time in six weeks to 7.85 per cent for the week ended November 28 as the upsurge in food prices continued to ease. During the week inflation, based on the wholesale price index (WPI) fell by 0.28 percentage points to 7.85 per cent (provisional) from 8.13 per cent (P) In theprevious week.

BoI to switch legacy currency positions: Bank of India will convert all its legacy currency positions into the euro, the new European currency, with effect from January 1, 1999, the day the new currency comes into existence. This would mean that treasury activity involving the deutsche mark, one of the prime foreign currencies in which trade takes place in India, will come to an end for all practical purposes in Bank of India.

Karsan officials for separation of trial: Two executives of Turkish firm Karsan, currently lodged in Tihar jail in connection with the Rs 133-crore urea scam, have sought separation of their trial from other co-accused in the case. "The joint trial is greatly prejudicing the rights of the accused .. And they would not have a free, fair and just trial..," newly-appointed counsel Herjinder Singh said in an application filed before special judge V B Gupta in New Delhi.

DD, AIR staff call off strike: The three-day old strike by programme staff ofDoordarshan and All India Radio (AIR) was called off after a meeting with information and broadcasting minister Pramod Mahajan in New Delhi on Sunday. Prasar Bharati CEO O P Kejriwal told PTI the minister, who met a delegation of the programme staff association (PSA), assured them that their demand on pay parity with engineering staff and promotion will be looked into `sympathetically'.