-The Hindu A recent survey in the Sunderbans region of West Bengal reveals an alarming trend of rising mental health problem among women Everyday, when Badal, a sturdy young man of Sunderbans returns home at dusk, he finds his mother, Kamala, sitting placidly in the verandah, staring into the distance with strangely unseeing eyes. The house, otherwise, is abuzz with activity. His daughter is bringing in the cows, his sons are clamouring...

-PTI The Central Vigilance Commission has recommended action against 136 officials working in various government departments for their alleged involvement in corruption. Of the total, a highest of 32 are working in Department of Telecommunications, 17 in State Bank of India, 11 in Ministry of Railways and nine in Bank of India among others. Besides, seven officials working in Central Board of Excise and Customs and four officials each in Bharat Sanchar Nigam...

-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...

-Agence France-Presse Washington: The World Bank warned on Sunday that global temperatures could rise by four degrees this century without immediate action, with potentially devastating consequences for coastal cities and the poor. Issuing a call for action, the World Bank tied the future wealth of the planet -- and especially developing regions -- to immediate efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions from sources such as energy production. "The time is very, very short....

-Outlook Only six states in the country, including Maharashtra and Kerala, are likely to achieve the Millenium Development Goal (MDG) on reducing child mortality by 2015, a report said today. Except Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and West Bengal, other parts of the country are unlikely to achieve MDG 4, which aims to reduce Under-Five Mortality by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015, unless some key issues are addressed, These observations were...