U.S. support for Muhammad Yunus is so strong that Dhaka may find a negotiated settlement to protect the Nobel Laureate's image and the independence of the Grameen Bank. Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus's three-decades-long journey with microfinance was laborious. But he most certainly did not encounter a crisis like the one he is facing now. It was only in December 2010 that the Bangladeshi — who shared the Nobel Peace Prize with...

The United Nations agency dealing with weather and climate today reported that ozone loss over the Arctic has reached an unprecedented level this spring owing to the continuing presence of ozone-depleting substances and extremely cold temperatures. Data shows that the Arctic region has suffered an ozone column loss of about 40 per cent from the beginning of the winter to late March, according to a news release issued by the World...

The Fukushima disaster has prompted calls to review legislation passed by the Indian parliament in August 2010 that capped compensation payable, in the event of a nuclear accident, at 320 million U.S. dollars. "Fukushima showed what the potential damage from an accident could be," M.V. Ramana, physicist and well-known commentator on nuclear energy safety issues, told IPS. "The economic damages [at Fukushima] must have certainly exceeded the compensation allowed in the nuclear...

Guess what hogs the news? In a country plagued by rural problems and social ills, it's politics and business that find the maximum coverage in newspapers and not health, education, agriculture or environment. A comprehensive study of 10 newspapers in five states from mid-September to mid- November 2010 by The Hoot, a media monitor, found that political news constituted the maximum - 15.7 percent of the total news items, followed by...

Social activist Swami Agnivesh phoned Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh, briefed him on his travel plans, and then embarked on a trip to the three villages allegedly burnt by the police in Dantewada. But he still could not get there. Along with his co-travellers, two teachers of 'Art of Living', he was physically obstructed and abused by a crowd on Saturday morning at Dornapal town, roughly 50 kilometres short of the...