-Farmlandgrab.org Oxfam’s Phil Bloomer reports on the shocking scandal of (mostly) secretive land-grabbing, usually from those least able to defend their rights Land grabbing has fast become a major threat to poor communities in Africa, Asia and South America. Poverty-stricken women and men are being driven from their homes and the land they rely on to grow food to eat and make a living, usually without compensation. In many cases this is...

-The Business Standard IT laws have clauses that can be too easily MISused The arrest of two women in Palghar (near Mumbai) for an innocuous Facebook status update is the latest indicator of an increasing intolerance of free speech, especially online. The state has also increased its surveillance. The focus on surveillance and censorship is evident not only in specific instances but also in the statistics. In February, the government said...

-Outlook Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Human Rights ComMISsion (MPHRC) today sought a report from the State Government on the collapse of an overhead water tank here in which seven persons were killed and 35 others injured. Taking a cognisance of media reports on the incident, MPHRC issued notices to Urban Administration and Development Department's Principal Secretary and Chief Engineer, and Bhopal civic chief, directing them to submit a report on the collapse within...

-Outlook Ghaziabad: Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary Neera Yadav and another IAS officer Rajiv Kumar were today sentenced to three-year imprisonment by a special CBI court here in the Noida plot allotment scam. CBI special judge S Lal also imposed a fine of Rs one lakh each on Yadav and Kumar. Yadav, a 1971 batch IAS officer, was the Chief Executive Officer of Noida in 1995 when she violated norms in allotting a...

-Outlook The Delhi police was asked today by a court here to file a status report on its probe into the case lodged against Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray for allegedly dubbing Bihar natives as infiltrators in Mumbai and threatening them to throw out of the state. "Notice to concerned investigating officer be issued with direction to file status of investigation," said Metropolitan Magistrate Neeraj Gaur. The court order came after the...