-The Times of India Sitamarhi (Bihar): The Sitamarhi district administration on Sunday prevailed upon Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh and persuaded him not to venture into Naxal-dominated areas.  The minister wanted to visit a village for verification of rural development work there.  Led by the SP, the district administration asked the minister not to go to Giddha gram panchayat under Runnisaidpur block, 35km from the district headquarters. "We have received reports that...

-The Hindustan Times A social activist and Congress worker was shot dead allegedly by an inspector when he was trying to draw the policeman’s attention to rampant corruption in the public distribution system (PDS). Ambika Prasad Dubey, 40, was shot in the chest and stomach at point-blank range after Dubey and some locals stopped a vehicle carrying PDS grain in Jhilpani village, 60 km from district headquarter Narsingpur, late Saturday. Villagers said...

-The Hindu Witnesses who have testified against Janardhan Reddy and his men fear the mining baron's release from jail A torrent of calls flooded the CBI unit in Bangalore when T. Pattabhi Ramarao, the CBI judge in distant Hyderabad, granted bail to the jailed mining baron, G. Janardhan Reddy, on May 11. Many of the frantic calls were from the 300-plus witnesses painstakingly persuaded by the CBI-Bangalore to testify in the case registered...

-The Hindu Operation Blossom Spring first taken up at Periye Authorities started the process of detoxifying endosulfan stocked in three warehouses of the Plantation Corporation of Kerala here on Sunday. Operation Blossom Spring was first taken up at the warehouse at Periye, transferring 914.55 litres of the pesticide in six corroded barrels to high-density polyethylene barrels. A team of personnel from Hindustan Insecticide Ltd. and the Kerala State Pollution Control Board and medical experts...

-IANS Jodhpur: A 20-year-old girl has sought protection by the Rajasthan authorities from members of a village community council who, she says, are threatening her with serious consequences if she did not accept her childhood marriage, officials said on Monday. She also requested the district administration officials to annul her marriage that was solemnised when she was a mere five-year old, they added. The girl, Rekha Kumari, is a resident of Peepar city...