-The Telegraph   The Centre has decided to take the help of the church to minimise the use of tobacco in Mizoram, after it was found that the state was home to the highest number of tobacco users in the country. The chief medical officer of the directorate-general of health services, Jagdish Kaur, revealed this here today during the release of the northeastern region’s factsheet of the Global Adult Tobacco Survey at NEDFi...

-The Hindu   Nearly 20 years of CAMPAigning against child labour in the fireworks industry has only driven the practice underground, a fact-finding study in Sivakasi conduced by a group of non-governmental organisations has said. Commissioned by CAMPAign Against Child Labour – Tamil Nadu, the study was jointly executed by members of Centre for Child Rights and Development (CCRD), NEED, Sivakasi, Human Rights Foundation, Indian Council for Child Welfare, Manitham of Sivaganga, and...

-The Hindu   West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee should clarify whether her earlier utterances that there were no Maoists in the State were “correct or wrong,” said Biman Bose, chairman of the State's Left Front Committee here on Sunday, a day after she set a seven-day deadline for the extremists in the Jangalmahal region on her offer of talks on condition that they give up their arms. “They [the Trinamool Congress] had...

-Mail Today   THE attack on Team Anna member Prashant Bhushan by goons owing allegiance to Bhagat Singh Kranti Sena is not just about the threat that fundamentalist forces present to the liberal space in the country. Almost as significant has been the response of other Team Anna members to Mr Bhushan’s stance that the Kashmiri people have a right of self- determination, and a referendum should be held in the state...

L. Devasagayam moved into the tsunami resettlement quarters in the village of Idinthakarai on the coast in the far south of Tamil Nadu after his neighbourhood further south was destroyed in the 2004 calamity. But now, he worries that the colourful home that he gratefully accepted after that disaster could be his undoing. The reason for the fear confronts him when he steps out of his house. Clearly visible at a...