-The Hindu Geeta Devi’s neat Hindi signature is written below her photograph – a shy-looking woman with a dupatta covering her head – in an affidavit duly notarised in Haridwar last month. Dehradun district resident Manju smiles out of the photograph on her affidavit, where she states she is just 36 years old. According to the government of Uttarakhand, both Manju and Geeta Devi are dead. After all, both women are manual...

-Farmlandgrab.org Oxfam’s Phil Bloomer reports on the shocking scandal of (mostly) secretive land-grabbing, usually from those least able to defend their rights Land grabbing has fast become a major threat to poor communities in Africa, Asia and South America. Poverty-stricken women and men are being driven from their homes and the land they rely on to grow food to eat and make a living, usually without compensation. In many cases this is...

-Outlook Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Human Rights Commission (MPHRC) today sought a report from the State Government on the collapse of an overhead water tank here in which seven persons were killed and 35 others injured. Taking a cognisance of media reports on the incident, MPHRC issued notices to Urban Administration and Development Department's Principal Secretary and Chief Engineer, and Bhopal civic chief, directing them to submit a report on the collapse within...

-Agence France-Presse Washington: The World Bank warned on Sunday that global temperatures could rise by four degrees this century without immediate action, with potentially devastating consequences for coastal cities and the poor. Issuing a call for action, the World Bank tied the future wealth of the planet -- and especially developing regions -- to immediate efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions from sources such as energy production. "The time is very, very short....

-The Business Standard Worryingly, investment in clean energy declines  Global investment in clean energy will decline perceptibly this year for the first time in eight years, signalling an unwarranted complacency in the fight against climate change. A report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance says funding for renewable energy generation in the first three quarters of this year was $164.2 billion, down from last year’s $196.4 billion. The downturn is the steepest at...