-AFP WASHINGTON: Google has jumped into the debate over a UN telecom gathering set to review regulations affecting the Internet, claiming it is "the wrong place" to make decisions about the future of the Web. In a posting on its "take action" blog this week, Google said the December gathering of the UN's International Telecommunications Union comes amid "a growing backlash on Internet freedom." The ITU's World Conference on International Communications opening next...

-The Economic Times MUMBAI: The ministerial panel entrusted with framing the country's drug pricing guidelines will meet Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday to discuss its final draft policy. The Group of Ministers, led by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, has decided to keep the market-based pricing mechanism but tweak the methodology used for calculating the price increase, a move it hopes will address the concerns of the finance ministry. The ministry was initially...

-The Times of India PARIS: The world's most effective vaccine candidate against dengue is all set for trials in India and if all goes to plan, the vaccine will be available globally by 2015. The vaccine will be tested on 120-odd adults in the beginning, the results of which should be available by 2013. Thereafter, a largescale study on children — the main target group — will be undertaken. In an exclusive interview,...

-Frontline There are no effective vaccines against Japanese encephalitis, but its spread can be controlled in India through vector management.  JAPANESE ENCEPHALITIS, or JE, has become endemic in many parts of the country, occurring repeatedly in epidemic form in many of them—for instance, in parts of Gorakhpur in northern Uttar Pradesh. One can expect JE-type epidemics year after year in States where prolonged drought-like conditions are followed by heavy monsoons. This leads to...

-The Hindu A drastic reduction in efficacy seen in the infants during the one-year follow-up period The results of the Phase III trial of the malaria vaccine RTS,S/AS01 are greatly disappointing. The efficacy of the vaccine in preventing clinical and severe malaria in infants aged 6 to 12 weeks is much less than what was expected. In fact, the level of protection offered is nearly half of what was reported last year...