-PTI The CBI has registered five cases in connection with illegal iron ore export scam worth Rs. 2500 crore and carried out searches at 17 locations, including in the premises of associates of jailed mining baron G Janardhan Reddy, on Saturday. Acting on the orders of Supreme Court which asked the agency to probe the scam, the agency registered five cases and a preliminary enquiry against firms and exporters allegedly related...

Between 2009 and February 2011, at least 14 people were charged with sedition in India London: The typical citizen could be forgiven for fearing that the world’s largest democracy is hurtling towards George Orwell’s 1984 rather than 2013. In late August the government’s department of telecommunications, citing the “communal tensions” around Assam, blocked more than 300 individual web addresses, including the Twitter profile pages of some journalists. It also ordered a limit...

-Frontline The Central government notifies new RTI rules, which effectively curb citizens’ right to obtain information.  ON July 31, the Central government notified new rules to implement the Right to Information Act, 2005. The rules will come into force once the Central government tables the notification in Parliament and both Houses of Parliament agree to it. The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has not published these rules on its website as...

-The Times of India Non-government wildlife experts on board the PM-chaired National Board of Wildlife (NBWL) are planning to write a joint letter to PM Manmohan Singh complaining of alleged illegalities and malpractices of the environment ministry. In a move that could further embarrass the government, they are also considering using the letter to the PM later in the Supreme Court to oppose some green clearances given by the ministry and some...

-The Hindu Activists brand them illegal Bangladeshi migrants Ninety-eight migrant labourers were dragged out of a train and assaulted, allegedly by Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) members, at Mandya in Karnataka late on Wednesday night. The activists terrorised the labourers hailing from West Bengal, Orissa, Rajasthan, Bihar and other States for nearly two hours before dragging them out, claiming they were “illegal Bangladeshis.” The labourers were heading to Mangalore on the Yeshwantpur-Kannur Express. Scores of...