-The Times of India The Supreme Court on Thursday lifted the omnibus ban on iron ore mines in Bellary, Chitradurga and Tumkur districts of Karnataka and permitted 81 lease owners, who had committed minor violations, to resume mining after compliance of stringent conditions laid down by the courts. Moving forward from its reference to illegal mining activity for decades under active political patronage as "a shocking state of depredation of nature's bounty...

-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 Hindu Identifying 37 per cent - or about 60,000 square km - of the Western Ghats as ecologically sensitive, a high-level panel has recommended that "destructive" activities such as mining, thermal power, major construction, and some hydel power projects should not be allowed there. However, the panel was silent about any restrictions in the remaining 96,000 square km area, thus creating the perception that it had diluted earlier recommendations that the...

-The Hindu Extracts show violence before and during funeral processions of kar sevaks In its closure report submitted to the trial court, the Special Investigation Team that probed Zakia Jafri's complaintagainst Narendra Modi and 58 others said there was no evidence to prove that the Chief Minister had sent the bodies of the 2002 Godhra victims to Ahmedabad with a view to parading them before the public. The SIT quoted Ahmedabad Police Commissioner...

-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...