-The Hindu   The Tamil Nadu Cabinet on Thursday passed a resolution urging the Centre to halt the work on the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) until the fears of local population over the safety of the plants are allayed. The Cabinet resolution was in line with the assurance given by Chief Minister Jayalalithaa to the anti-Kudankulam protesters on Wednesday, when their representatives called on her. ‘Struggle to continue' Tirunelveli Staff Reporter adds: Though the 12-day...

Amid policy battles over food production, energy resources and economic decline, one untapped natural resource that is guaranteed to boost production on a global scale has been stubbornly overlooked – the power of women in the labour force. According to the World Bank's 2012 World Development Report (WDR) "Gender Equality and Development", ensuring equal access for women farmers would increase maize yields by 11 to 16 percent in Malawi and 17...

As leaders from two of the world's largest financial institutions, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, met for annual meetings here Tuesday, a delegation of activists from India called on the World Bank to follow through with its proposal to dramatically cut funding for coal-burning power stations. Over the next few days, the delegation will travel from Washington to West Virginia where, in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains, activists...

China has reduced deaths among newborn babies by almost two-thirds in little over a decade — an unprecedented success rate that a new study says holds lessons for countries like India still struggling with high neonatal and maternal mortality rates. Deaths among newborn babies fell from 24.7 per 1,000 in 1996 to 9.3 in 2008 — a 62-per-cent decrease — according to a paper published in The Lancet medical journal on...

“It is only the legislature which can abolish the death penalty and not the courts. As long as the death penalty exists in the statute book, it has to be imposed in some cases, otherwise it will tantamount to repeal of the death penalty by the judiciary,” the Supreme Court said on Tuesday while confirming the death sentence on an accused for burning to death his wife and three children. A...