-PTI   A desperate government's efforts failed today to achieve any breakthrough with Baba Ramdev deciding to go ahead with his indefinite fast here from tomorrow amidst indications that a compromise was likely in a day or two. For nearly five hours, two senior union ministers Kapil Sibal and Subodh Kant Sahay negotiated with the yoga guru over his demands on eradication of corruption at a posh hotel, a venue totally different...

-The Telegraph   A World Health Organisation panel’s decision to tag mobile phone radiation as “possibly carcinogenic” has set off one of the most intense debates involving an everyday device that touches the lives of 5 billion people worldwide. The WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has classified electromagnetic radiation in the category of agents such as lead, styrene, even coffee, for which there is limited evidence of carcinogenicity in...

As hazardous as lead, engine exhaust, chloroform Type of radiation a mobile emits is like very low-powered microwave oven Use texting and free-hands devices to reduce risk Confirming the worst fears of mobile phone users, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that radiation from cellphones is possibly cancerous. It has classified the radiofrequency electromagnetic fields as “possibly carcinogenic to humans, based on an increased risk for glioma – a malignant type of...

The farmers' struggle against land acquisition only shows that from passive forms of protest they have turned to active forms of resistance. THE recent agitation by farmers in Uttar Pradesh against cropland acquisition for non-agricultural purposes is only the latest in a long series of protests by farmers and rural communities, which started a decade ago in different parts of the country and which gathered momentum over the past five...

-The United Nations   An estimated 2,500 youth are newly infected with HIV every day, with women and adolescent girls facing a disproportionately higher risk, according to a new joint report by the United Nations and the World Bank that calls for a “chain of prevention” to protect young people. “Opportunity in Crisis: Preventing HIV from early adolescence to young adulthood” presents, for the first time, data on HIV infections among young...