The amounts of various radioactive releases into the environment are unknown, as are the winds and other factors that determine how radioactivity will disperse. The different radioactive materials reported at the nuclear accidents in Japan range from relatively benign to extremely worrisome. The central problem in assessing the degree of danger is that the amounts of various radioactive releases into the environment are now unknown, as are the winds and other...

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed deep sorrow today and offered the full support of the United Nations after a massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami struck Japan, killing dozens of people and destroying towns, villages and large swathes of infrastructure. UN agencies say they are on standby to assist in Japan and any other countries that may also be hit by tsunamis in the wake of the quake, which was one of the...

There’s no evidence that India’s growing prosperity has led to less malnutrition among Indian children, according to a new study by scientists from Harvard and the University of Michigan. One plausible explanation, the authors wrote, is that India’s rapid economic growth “may have benefited only the privileged sections of society.” Technology jobs have driven the boom, but 75 percent of the population is supported by farming or manufacturing, noted S. V. Subramanian,...

Delhi will soon get rid of problems related to scarcity and adulteration in kerosene oil being used by lakhs of poor families for cooking every day as new scheme is coming up replacing kerosene stoves. The Delhi government, along with the union government, has been giving final touches to a scheme which will replace kerosene oil stoves with LPG and further provide subsidy through banks to the poor. This will make...

Peasant leader and RTI activist Akhil Gogoi, who is spearheading an anti-corruption campaign in the state almost single-handedly, will move the Election Commission with details of property owned by ministers and their families ahead of the forthcoming Assembly elections. Gogoi today said the recent asset lists made public by some of the ministers revealed only a small portion of their assets, scattered across different parts of the state. “Using the RTI Act,...