-Reuters   The world's trading nations are succumbing to protectionism in the wake of the global financial crisis, limiting exports of food and raw materials and installing new import barriers, the WTO warned on Friday. Commodities export restrictions from Indian cotton and Ukrainian wheat to Chinese rare earths and coal are "not without hazards", the World Trade Organization said in the report that assesses the protectionist behaviour of more than 180 nations. The...

As the Lokpal Bill gets mired in a tortuous birthing, the debate shifts to who exactly has the right to pass a law Why Politicians Hate Civil Society     * Unelected activists stealing Parliament’s right to make laws, undercutting role of parliamentarians     * Demands like an all-powerful Lokpal directly impact political-bureaucratic class and the status quo     * Rigid deadlines, fasts unto death to press home issues are akin to holding government...

Footage of the fracas replayed at ANHAD meeting Old Rafiq Ansari is inconsolable, shocked and quite simply beyond words as he comes to grips with the loss of his seven-month-old grandson — a death he considers almost surreal. Baby Naushad, who died in his mother's lap when two bullets struck him last Friday, was one of the four killed in police firing on protesters. Villagers of Bhajanpur and Rampur were protesting against the...

Victims have not forgotten the following brutal tragedies in the life of independent India, even if the State and political parties may pretend to have. 1984—Delhi: On October 31, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her two Sikh bodyguards in revenge for ‘Operation Bluestar’. For the next three days, as Doordarshan telecast the lying in state of her body, over 3000 Sikhs—men and boys—were burnt alive while policemen, politicians and...

Cells of children rapidly divide and hence are more sensitive to any radiation. The brain area exposed to radiation is also large If the World Health Organisation has classified Mobile phones as “possibly carcinogenic” on May 31, the Council of Europe's parliamentary assembly took a proactive step by adopting a resolution on May 27. The Council has recommended restrictions on the use of Mobile phones and wireless Internet access in all schools...