-IANS Kolkata: A youth was quizzed by police on Sunday after he asked a minister why Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee did not visit a slum in West Bengal where 700 shanties were destroyed in fire on Saturday. The incident happened during Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim's visit to Sholo Bigha slum in the Maheshtala Santoshpur area of South 24-Parganas where a blaze had rendered 1,500 people homeless on Saturday morning. Pratap Naskar, who...

-PTI Kolkata: Around 700 shanties were gutted in a fire in Santoshpur-Maheshtala area on the outskirts of the city today, leaving more than a thousand people homeless. Police said no injuries or casualties were reported but four persons were caught by locals from the spot and handed over to police for allegedly indulging in arson.   Seven fire engines went to the spot but could do little as the vehicles couldn't cross the railway...

-The Times of India Nine Maoists, including rocket launcher Sadula Ramakrishna, who were granted the status of 'political prisoners' by a lower court in Kolkata, may soon be stripped of their privileges as the West Bengal government is set to challenge the order in the Supreme Court. Last week, the apex court stayed a Calcutta High Court order giving political prisoner status to Maoist leader Telugu Dipak, People's Committee against Police Atrocities...

-The Times of India Delhi is not close to any of the tiger belts of the country, yet it figures among the five hotspots in India connected to big cat poaching, says a report by a global wildlife trade monitoring network and WWF. Tiger seizures in the capital are predominantly of skins, although there has been no big catch since 2005. The other four hotspots identified in the global report are: Ramnagar...

-The Hindustan Times Bhubaneswar: A national level fact-finding team comprising civil liberties groups and individuals on Sunday demanded a high level judicial inquiry into the bomb blast in a village near the site of proposed $12 billion (Rs 54 crore) plant of Korean steel major Posco in Odisha's Jagatsinghpur district that killed three anti-Posco activists and seriously injured another activist. The team members, including 'Mainstream' editor Sumit Chakravartty, former Delhi University professor...