Johannesburg, June 13 (ANI): The World Health Organisation's (WHO) cancer research agency classified diesel engine exhaust as cancer-causing on Tuesday, and urged action to reduce human exposure to it. In 1988, the IARC had classified diesel exhaust as "probably" carcinogenic. "Diesel engine exhaust causes lung cancer in humans," News24 quoted Christopher Portier, chair of a working group at the WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), as saying.   The UN body said...

Jharkhand has proved it is both willing and able where disposing complaints related to physical disability is concerned. In the past three years (2008-11), the state received 10,095 complaints and disposed of 9,414 cases, a feat that has impressed none other than Mukul Balkrishna Wasnik, Union minister for social justice and empowerment. A two-day meet in New Delhi’s Vigyan Bhavan, hosted by Union social justice and empowerment ministry, and starting from tomorrow,...

If the environment ministry's draft proposal for 'inviolate forest areas' is accepted, large swathes of Healthy forests, including national parks, wildlife sanctuaries, tiger reserves and wildlife corridors, would be out of bounds for all mining activities, and not just coal excavation. The ministry's draft lists criteria for identifying forest patches where mining should be banned following the GoM on coal's decision to junk the no-go policy of the environment ministry. The...

The ASCI report says there is ample evidence of “market dominance” in specific media markets, but the government has ignored the report for three years. A ministry official tells PARANJOY GUHA THAKURTA that it is unlikely to be implemented. A report prepared by an independent institution recommending imposition of cross-media ownership restrictions recently entered the public domain nearly three years after it was submitted,  following a rebuke to the government by...

-The New York Times   New Delhi: Yasmeen Khan dons her burqa and steps out of her house in the Nizamuddin neighborhood of Delhi every evening to walk a short distance to a 10-foot-high stone wall. Behind the wall is paradise - a place where she can remove her burqa and hijab, enjoy cool fresh air in her hair, exercise and gossip with friends. Hundreds of women regularly visit the "Pardah Bagh," a...