-The Hindu   In a significant shot in the arm for the environmentalists, the A.P. High Court on Thursday suspended operation of Government Order 1107 alienating 972 acres of land in favour of Nagarjuna Construction Company for setting up a thermal power plant at Sompeta in SRIkakulam district. Sompeta was in national focus last year when police opened fire on agitators, including environmentalists and farmers, opposed to the thermal power station on...

-PTI   Global rice production is expected to touch 476 million tonnes in 2011, on the back of improved weather conditions, as the influence of La Nina is expected to neutralise by June, United Nation's body FAO said. The world rice production reached a new record in 2010, at 464 million tonnes (696 million tonnes paddy), up 1.8 per cent from the previous season, Food and Agriculture Organisation said. "Although very preliminary, world...

Probing the trail of Rs 200 crore, which was paid to Kalaignar TV by Swan Telecom in the 2G spectrum scam, the CBI has now reached at the doors of four private companies including UB Group and India Cements. While the names of the other two companies could not be ascertained, CBI officials said the four had facilitated payments to Kalaignar TV to help it repay Rs 200 crore to Swan. "We...

A Central team of doctors finally termed the disease encephalitis Parents not admitting their children to government hospitals Muzaffarpur: Kejriwal Matri Sadan, sited in the heart of Bihar's Muzaffarpur district, is exploding with fear, panic and chaos over a ‘mystery' disease – a disease that has claimed the lives 36 children in less than two weeks. Screaming infants, convulsing in terrible pain, present a stark contrast to the smug, matter-of-fact versions of health...

It was the writer and activist Arundhati Roy who set foreign journalists in India busily chattering recently. In an interview with Stephen Moss in the Guardian, Ms Roy was discussing the Maoist and Adavasi “resistance” to encroachment on tribal lands. Mr Moss, asked her why, “we in the West don’t hear about these mini-wars?”. Ms Roy replied: “I have been told quite openly by several correspondents of international newspapers, that...