-PTI JOHANNESBURG: States may not prevent access to websites because they display opinions or beliefs that are critical of governments or established systems of thought, UN Human Rights Commissioner Navanethem "Navi" Pillay said here. Pillay, a South African of Indian Tamil origin, was delivering a lecture on 'Human Rights Achievements and Challenges in a Rapidly Changing World' at the University of the Witwatersrand as part of South Africa's celebration of Human Rights...

-Outlook Development activities including thermal power projects, mining and other polluting industries should not be allowed in a 60,000 sq km ecologically sensitive "natural landscape" of Western Ghats, a mountainous range that passes through six states, a Government panel said today. In its report, the 10-member high-level working group, headed by eminent scientist K Kasturirangan, has not recommended any regulatory mechanism for the remaining 96,000 sq km area of the Western...

-The Times of India The Cabinet on Thursday will consider a proposal for creating the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC), scrapping the current system of appointing judges through the collegiums system of Supreme Court and High Court judges. The proposal provides for a six-member JAC headed by the Chief Justice of India with the law minister and the Opposition Leader and two jurists as other members. The proposal, which replaces the present system of...

-The Times of India KANPUR: The Public Information Officers (PIOs) at various government departments in the city are having no knowledge of Right To Information Act (RTI), 2005 and its clauses. Majority of departments have non-law candidates serving the post of PIOs. In the absence of any proper guidance and workshops, these officials face problem in addressing the RTI queries and hence large number of them (RTIs) remain pending. These findings came...

-PTI Kolkata/ Siliguri: In a controversial incident, a Leader of Communist Party of India (Marxist) student wing who was arrested after a clash with ruling Trinamool Congress activists was chained to his bed at a state-run hospital in judicial custody. The first-year student, Santosh Sahani, a member of the Students Federation of India, was arrested on April 10 after a clash between Trinamool Congress and Left supporters in Siliguri. The chain was later...