In a setback to CBI, the Supreme Court on Friday upholds life sentence for Dara Singh, who killed Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two minor sons in January 22, 1999. A bench comprising Justices P Sathasivam and B S Chauhan, while dismissing the agency's plea for death penalty, said the punishment can be imposed only in the "rarest of rare" cases depending upon the facts and situation of each case. The...

The environment ministry today released a paper by a senior Indian space scientist that highlights the role of cosmic rays in global warming and attempts to rekindle a 13-year debate on natural factors heating the planet. The scientific review, by Udupi Ramachandra Rao, a cosmic ray physicist and former head of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), also claims the UN climate change agency overestimated the role of greenhouse gases on...

Like Kerala’s Kasaragod, neighbouring Dakshina Kannada is bearing the brunt of spraying of endosulfan. While Kasaragod grabbed media spotlight and Kerala banned the pesticide, victims in Karnataka are still struggling for recognition. Karnataka chief minister B S Yeddyurappa in December announced that his government would consider banning endosulfan. The highly toxic pesticide is banned in over 70 countries. The assurance has come too late and is too little for the hundreds of...

In post-globalisation India, middle-class heroes are usually entrepreneurs who make a fast buck, stars that glitter brightly and talk glibly, cricketers who hit the ball hard. In an aspirational world of consumer goods, fine dining and malls, values such as service, integrity, simplicity are becoming rare. Perhaps that is why the story of Binayak Sen, the skilled doctor who turned his back on material success to work among the poor...

Four tribespeople have died in violence on the border of the north-eastern Indian states of Assam and Meghalaya. Thousands of people have been displaced in the clashes between the Rabha and Garo tribes in the past 24 hours. An indefinite curfew has been imposed on the area since midnight, but tension remained high, police said. Trouble has been brewing in the Krishnai area since Rabhas and Garos clashed on CHRIstmas Day after a...