-The Hindustan Times New Delhi: We had not yet recovered from the horror played out in Member of Parliament Dhananjay Singh's home in New Delhi's VIP enclave when another horrific case of maid abuse tumbled out from a middle-class neighbourhood in east Delhi last week. A 55-year-old Non-Resident Indian, in town to take care of her ailing mother, allegedly tortured her maid by branding her with hot kitchen tongs. A minor...

-DNA An allocation of Rs 17,700 crore in the 2013-2014 Union Budget but not a single accountable rupee spent for pre-school education or a plate of food for the homeless children in Mumbai. Yoshita Sengupta investigates the absence of homeless children from ICDS registers Mumbai: In 2010, Ms. Rekha, a homeless woman living on the footpath in Mumbai in her last month of pregnancy, slipped while trying to cross a wall. She...

-IANS NEW DELHI: A group of Greenpeace activists will hold a 30-hour long protest across 30 cities in India from Saturday, demanding the release of their 30 counterparts arrested by the Russian authorities in the Arctic region in September. "Twenty-eight activists, one photographer and one videographer have been arrested in the Arctic region for peacefully protesting the drilling in the region. They face severe charges of piracy and hooliganism," said a Greenpeace...

-Down to Earth Report of health experts deputed by civil society group says infants did not receive timely medical care when they developed serious reaction A team of public health experts who probed the deaths of eight children in Jammu and Kashmir who were administered pentavalent vaccine has said the deaths were related to administrative negligence and inadequate medical facilities. Seven children in GB Pant hospital and one in SKIMS Medical College...

-The Hindu Opinion polls should be regulated, not banned. Ideally, it should be self-regulation by pollsters and media organisations. The debate around the latest proposal to ban opinion polls is an opportunity in disguise. Beneath the familiar acrimony of partisan debates, a much-needed middle ground has emerged quietly. All we need is a group of stakeholders - pollsters, researchers, media heads and political leaders - to come together to turn this possibility...