Draft rules proposed by the Indian government for intermediaries such as telecommunications companies, Internet service providers and blogging sites could in effect Aid censorship, according to experts. Under the draft rules, intermediaries will have to notify users of their services not to use, display, upload, publish, share or store a variety of content, for which the definition is very vague, and liable to misuse. Content that is prohibited under these guidelines ranges...

Patients battling cancer, infections and mental illness joined a rally here today beseeching the government to reject a trade pact with the European Union that they fear will threaten the availability of inexpensive generic medicines in India. An estimated 2,000 people, many among them infected with HIV, walked along Delhi’s Parliament Street on a day when Indian and EU officials were negotiating a free trade agreement in Brussels. Health activists and lawyers...

Bangladeshi Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus has launched a legal battle, one day after he was sacked from the Grameen microfinance bank he founded. Prof Yunus lodged a case in Bangladesh's High Court challenging his dismissal from the post, lawyers sAid. The central bank sacked him saying he was past retirement age and had been improperly installed in his post. Grameen Bank disputes the accusations. He has been under pressure from the government to...

An activist working for the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme was killed after being mercilessly beaten by a group of 12 suspected Maoists at Jerua village in Latehar district. The activist, Niyamat Ansari, who was stated to be a close Aide of noted economist Jean Dreze, died last night after Maoists beat him up with lathis, police sources alleged. A group dragged him out of his residence...

An activist working for the implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme was killed after being caned continuously at Jerua village in Latehar district. The activist, Niyamat Ansari, a close Aide of noted economist Jean Dreze, died after a group beat him with lathis, police sAid. The rebels reportedly dragged him out of his residence at 7 PM and started beating him up mercilessly. He was admitted to a local hospital...