-The Hindu Leaked documents at WCIT expose secret design; India steers clear of the proposal A leaked document from the UN’s World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) being held in Dubai, shows that the UAE accompanied by Russia, China, Sudan, Algeria and Brazil had placed a proposal to fundamentally restructure the Web and place it under government control, with authorisation for extensive state surveillance and content regulation. Brazilians later tweeted, denying their...

-The Indian Express Patna: Out of 534 block development officers posted across Bihar, 181 or one-third are currently facing probe — mostly for alleged misuse and misappropriation of fund meant for the Indira Awas Yojana. In fact, 58 BDOs face corruption charges for their dubious role in the implementation of IAY. This was revealed in an RTI query by Buxur resident Shiv Prakash Rai, who had asked for a list of...

-The Hindu The climate talks continued here on Saturday with Conference of Parties (COP) 18 president Abdullah Bin Hamid Al Hattiyah of Qatar pushing for a conclusion, while accepting that everyone was unhappy with the proposals, but at the same time wanting an outcome. After a brief informal plenary in the morning where Mr. Al Hattiyah asked ministerial outreach groups on key issues to report back after consultation, the plenary convened briefly...

-The Hindustan Times In an reply to a query under the Right to Information Act , the Union ministry of commerce and industry has admitted that it has no "specific information to furnish" regarding the Union government's claim in a newspaper advertisement that foreign direct investment (FDI) in retail would create over one crore jobs and that 50% of the total foreign investment would be in villages. A Bhopal-based advocate, NK Jain,...

-IPS News Doha: United Nations climate talks are on the edge of collapse Thursday, according to a coalition of civil society and representatives from half of the world’s countries. Once again, rich industrialised nations are putting nothing on the table in terms of increased emissions cuts and financial support for poor nations, said Celine Charveriat, director of advocacy and campaigns for Oxfam International. “This is just like WTO (World Trade Organisation) negotiations where...