The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today notified veterinary and border authorities in Asia of a major outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the Republic of Korea, urging them to be on the look-out for livestock showing signs of infection by the highly contagious animal disease. Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) affects cloven-hoofed animals, including cattle, sheep, goats and pigs, causing high fever. It is characteristic by lesions in animals' mouths and...

A week after he lost his ailing son, and ten months after he worked on a village road project, Pitbasu Bhoi finally got the ten thousand rupees he had earned under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Program (MNREGA). "Of what use is the money now? I have just immersed my son's ashes. When I needed the money to save his life, I did not have it," says Bhoi. The...

Foreign observers will keep a close watch on the Chhattisgarh High Court's hearing on rights activist Binayak Sen's appeal on Monday. The ministry of external affairs (MEA) has forwarded to the Chhatisgarh government a request from an eight-member European Union (EU) delegation keen to watch the proceedings in the HC in Bilaspur on January 24. Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh has forwarded the Centre's request to the HC, leaving it to the judiciary...

The Sonia Gandhi-headed National Advisory Council will meet on Friday for the second time this month. It will consider a number of issues, including the Rangarajan panel’s recommendations on the draft Food Security Bill. The high-profile policy advisory body, headed by the United Progressive Alliance chairperson , may formulate its response to the governmentappointed Rangarajan panel’s recommendations, which were seen as diluting the NAC’s vision of the scope of legally binding...

New CRZ notification sparks off fears, upsets fisherfolk The new Coastal Zone Regulation (CRZ) 2011 which has opened up construction along the sea has sparked off fears of Mumbai being ringed with high rises and mutating into a ‘desi' Manhattan. It has triggered furious debates on development and upset the fisherfolk who are planning to hit the streets across the country to agitate for better coastal protection. Since 1991 when the first...