New Delhi, Jan 22: In a bid to give a renewed look to the National Democratic Alliance, the parties who call themselves "friends", today held a "special meeting" at the residence of Lal Krishna Advani’s and decided to contest the next general elections under his leadership.

Putting rest to speculations making rounds for quite sometime, they also decided to retain Atal Behari Vajpayee as chairman and George Fernandes as convenor of the alliance.

New Delhi, Jan 22: Finance Minister P Chidambaram today said the current slump in the Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange
(BSE) would "not effect" the market in the long run.

Trading was suspended for one hour at the BSE after the benchmark Sensex fell to the low of 15,576.30 within minutes of opening, crossing the circuit limit of 10 per cent.

Appealing to investors to stay calm, Chidambaram said: "The economy will grow close to nine per cent. The current trend will not effect market in the long run."

The market has since resumed trading.

New Delhi, Jan 22: The 30-share sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange

New Del