-IANS   Hundreds of thousands of people in Bihar are living in fear after heavy rains caused several rivers to swell and flood over 100 villages, officials said Monday. The Bagmati river breached its embankment in Muzaffarpur district, while the rising waters in the Gandak and Kosi rivers are also posing a serious threat. "Bagmati river breached its embankment near Basghatta village in Muzaffarpur, creating panic in dozens of villages as the flood...

-IANS   Hundreds of people in Bihar have been forced to abandon their homes as flood waters entered nearly 100 villages and rising levels of most rivers threatened to inundate many others, officials said on Saturday. All the inundated villages were in flood-prone districts of Muzaffarpur, Gopalganj, Purnia, Araria, Saharsa, Madhepura and Bagaha, officials said. "Water entered these villages after levels rose in all the major rivers following heavy rains in the state...

-The Hindu   CM: adopted Maoist tactics during June 22 protest “Also associated with ULFA front organisations” Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Tuesday alleged that the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) led by the arrested RTI activist and farmers' leader, Akhil Gogoi, had links with Maoists. Mr. Akhil Gogoi was arrested in connection with the June 22 incidents in the city during a protest programme seeking halt to eviction of city hill settlers led...

  Can we agree in this country on a floor of human dignity below which we will not allow any human being to fall? No child, woman or man in this land will sleep hungry. No person shall be forced to sleep under the open sky. No parent shall send their child out to work instead of to school. And no one shall die because they cannot afford the cost of...

It was the writer and activist Arundhati Roy who set foreign journalists in India busily chattering recently. In an interview with Stephen Moss in the Guardian, Ms Roy was discussing the Maoist and Adavasi “resistance” to encroachment on tribal lands. Mr Moss, asked her why, “we in the West don’t hear about these mini-wars?”. Ms Roy replied: “I have been told quite openly by several correspondents of international newspapers, that...