-PTI Colombo rejects U.S.-backed resolution, says it is "replete with misrepresentations" on the current situation; 25 countries vote in favour, while 13 nations including Pakistan vote against India was among the 24 countries which backed a U.S.-sponsored resolution on Thursday at the U.N. Human Rights Council against Sri Lanka asking it to conduct an "independent and credible" probe into allegations of human rights violations, an issue on which the DMK pulled out...

-The Telegraph A government laboratory has detected cancer-causing fungal toxins exceeding safety limits in samples of ultra-high-temperature processed milk, suggesting that a contamination problem highlighted eight years ago remains unresolved. Scientists at the Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI), Mysore, have found a compound called aflatoxin M1, a fungal product labelled a carcinogen, in about 20 per cent of the samples of UHT milk they examined. Earlier studies in India over the past...

-The Financial Express After plummeting to a record low two months back, the retail price of potatoes has risen sharply due to lower supplies. The prices have been rising mainly due to expectations of a lower rabi output in the key producing states of Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. Traders at Delhi’s Azadpur market say potato prices have risen in the last two weeks because of lower supplies from UP, West Bengal and...

India has the worst air pollution in the entire world, beating China, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh, according to a study released during this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos. Of 132 countries whose environments were surveyed, India ranks dead last in the ‘Air (effects on human health)’ ranking. The annual study, the Environmental Performance Index, is conducted and written by environmental research centers at Yale and Columbia universities with assistance from...

-The Times of India   Even as the country continues to witness a campaign for a strong anti-corruption watchdog, a report has calculated that between $104 billion and $128 billion (roughly Rs 5 to 6 lakh crore) was illegally siphoned out of India in the decade spanning 2000 to 2009. This works out to an average outflow of about $10-13 billion (Rs 48,000 to Rs 63,000 crore) every year. The report has been prepared...