-The Economic Times   The Centre came down heavily on states that are opposing foreign investment in multibrand retail for not making their point when the policy was being formulated and said those opposed had the powers to stop companies from opening stores in their boundaries.  Some state governments, including Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh, have opposed the government's proposal to allow 51% foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail and blasted the Centre...

Like stags fighting, the first days of each annual UN climate summit start with delegations circling each other politically, looking for weaknesses, gauging strengths. The summit that began this week in Durban, South Africa, has been no different - and though it might seem that little has been accomplished so far, a number of blocs have at least made their poSITions clearer than ever before. And that's vital if effective negotiations are...

-The Indian Express   Pitching for changes in laws to deal with corruption, the Prime Minister's Chief Economic Advisor Kaushik Basu has said bribe-givers should not be penalised in case he has to pay money for getting the work done. In his revised paper to deal with corruption, Basu argued bribe giver could be penalised only if he or she benefits from government contracts. But in that case too, the penalty for bribe...

-The Indian Express   The breakthrough that the joint anti-Naxal operations achieved in West Bengal last week, in the Kishenji encounter, was preceded by a visible regress in the battle against the Maoists in the state. This step back was the result of a heSITation on the part of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to pursue the police and paramilitary operations which had begun to yield gains in the last days...

-The Telegraph   Stress strikes the pupils of a Murshidabad school every day not because of impenetrable syllabus or unsparing teachers but because they fear the Padma river can rise up and engulf them any minute. All it took for a wave of panic to crash in today was the rattle of tin cans on a truck and an exclamation from a teacher, which triggered a stampede in which 20 children were injured. The...