WASHINGTON: The United States on Monday formally consigned the controversial nuclear test ban treaty to cold storage, possibly for years to come. President Clinton, who fought long and hard to get American law-makers to ratify the pact, finally wrote to the Senate seeking a postponement of the vote scheduled for Tuesday. Deferring the vote will save the treaty from outright rejection, allowing the administration to fight for it another day, another time.

Nobel for Chemistry

STOCKHOLM: Egyptian-born scientist Ahmed Ezewail of the California Institute of Technology won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry while Dutch scientists Gerardus 'T Hooft and Martinus J G Veltman bagged the prize for Physics on Tuesday. Zewail won the prize for demonstrating that a rapid laser technique can observe the motion of atoms in a molecule during a reaction.

HC restrains TRAI

NEW DELHI: In a major blow to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) a division benchof the Delhi HC on Tuesday held that the regulatory body did not have powers to give directions to government on issuing licenses to basic telecom service providers. The HC also restrained TRAI from proceeding further against MTNL chief on issue of launch of mobile telephone services in the Capital recently.