-The Hindu   The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Thursday refuted the “specious explanations” on inflation given by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee saying his statement hid the government's failure to check price rise. Reacting to his November 22 suo motu statement in Parliament, the CPI(M) Polit Bureau said: “It is nothing but an exercise in deception to conceal the utter failure of the UPA government in checking the relentless price rise.” While referring...

We have five million children in the labour market, say official figures. Their actual numbers may be four times as many. As a nation, we have failed each one of them…   Millions of our children still labour today, in factories, farms, kilns, mines, homes and city waste dumps, when they should be in school or in a playground. We profoundly fail these children, collectively depriving them of education, play, rest, healthy...

-BBC   Aids-related deaths are at the lowest level since their 2005 peak, down 21%, figures from UNAids suggest. Globally, the number of new HIV infections in 2010 was 21% down on that peak, seen in 1997, according to UNAids 2011 report. The organisation says both falls have been Fuelled by a major expansion in access to treatment. Its executive director, Michel Sidibe, said: "We are on the verge of a significant breakthrough." He added: "Even...

Recent events in south Asia have led to an unexpected reversal in the narrative of microfinance, long presented as a development success. Despite charges of poor treatment of clients, exaggeration of the impact on the poorest as well as the risks of credit bubbles, the sector can play a non-negligible role in reaching financial services to low-income households. In regulating the sector, there is need for caution in setting interest...

-The United Nations The presence of greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere last year reached its highest levels since pre-industrial times, a report released by the United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warns today. The latest edition of WMO’s Greenhouse Gas Bulletin, which places special focus on rising nitrous oxide concentrations, also notes that the rate of increase of greenhouse gases has recently accelerated. “Even if we managed to halt our greenhouse gas...