-IPS News UXBRIDGE, Canada- Growing water shortages in many countries are a major threat to global security and development and should be a top priority at the U.N. Security Council, a panel of experts said in a new report. However, that report ignores the biggest threat to water security: neoliberal policies of the free market economic system laying waste to the natural world and turning water into a commodity, activists counter. China...

-The Hindustan Times The fragile peace at Kudankulam lasted through Sunday, but elsewhere in Tamil Nadu and neighbouring Kerala, it was a day of protests and arrests. In Tuticorin, around 250 protesters on way to Kudankulam were arrested. They included Periyar Dravida Kazhagam leader Kolathur Mani and leaders of Naan Thamilar Iyakkam and Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam. In Kerala's Parassala, police stopped a "solidarity march" by cultural leaders to Kudankulam. For Tamil...

-The Hindu Ongoing agitation in Kudankulam illustrates how State criminalises popular protest To what extent will the State go to criminalise an agitation, especially a prolonged popular struggle against a project seen by the government as a vital necessity, but as a hazard by the people living in its vicinity? It will charge the protesters with grave offences such as “waging war” and “sedition” regardless of whether there is any basis. The ongoing...

-The Times of India  The political silence over yet another religious clash in Uttar Pradesh showcased the importance of Mulayam Singh Yadav in the current flux, with neither the right nor the Left wanting to annoy him. The killing of six Muslims in police firing following arson over desecration of the Quran wrecked the peace in industrial Ghaziabad. While the clash involved police and a violent mob, it was the sixth communal...

-The Telegraph Bombay High Court today said the “arbitrary” arrest of cartoonist Aseem Trivedi had breached his freedom of speech and expression. The court also said it intended to lay down guidelines for application of the pre-Independence sedition law to ensure that liberties guaranteed to citizens in a civil society are not encroached upon. “How can you (police) arrest people on frivolous grounds?” it said. The court had on Tuesday granted bail to Trivedi,...