-IANS The Supreme Court on Monday admitted a Bihar government plea challenging the acquittal of 23 accused in the massacre of 20 Dalits by the Ranvir Sena in Bathani Tola in Bhojpur district in 1996. An apex court bench of justice Altamas Kabir and justice J Chelameswar admitted the plea and issued notice to the acquitted accused. The trial court had convicted all the 23 accused and had awarded death sentence to...

Hearing of the petition in Supreme Court today against Patna High Court verdict acquitting all the accused A day before the hearing of the petition in the Supreme Court against the Patna High Court verdict acquitting all the accused in the Bathani Tola massacre of 1996, civil society activists on Sunday demanded justice for the victims of the massacre at a “Convention on Justice for the Bathani Tola Massacre 1996: Punish...

-The Times of India The attack on three environment and RTI activists across the country in less than two weeks has brought to the fore how environmentalism is a dirty and sometimes violent game in the hinterland unlike the soft, candle-lighting tiger-loving green activism in big cities.  Akhil Gogoi in Assam, Bharat Jhunjhunwala in Uttarakhand and Ramesh Agrawal in Chhattisgarh - green activists who used RTI to their advantage - were attacked...

-PTI CPI and CPI-ML today demanded a judicial probe into the killing of Maoists in a joint operation by police and CRPF personnel in the dense forests of Chhattisgarh, claiming they were "innocent tribals". "One or two Naxalites might have been there. The killing of innocent tribals will generate more anger and hatred towards police and security forces," CPI general secretary S Sudhakar Reddy said in a statement in Delhi. Ten of those...

-The Hindustan Times There is a widespread perception of policy paralysis in the corridors of power. The two remaining years of the UPA's term is still not too short to reverse the current drift, but time is rapidly running out. The damaged economy needs urgent fixing as does restoring the credibility of an executive racked by scandals and the absence of a sense of direction. The people of the country long...