-The Times of India CHENNAI: When Professor Russel Walker Strong set out to perform the world's first partial liver transplant from a live donor in Brisbane in 1989, the Australian media went berserk. "I was accused of using babies as guinea pigs. Headlines identified me as the surgeon who was running amok," said Prof Strong. More than two decades later, he stood before an audience in Tamil Nadu, a state, that...

-The Hindu The murder of Mohammad Akhlaq in Dadri should come as no surprise to those who have been closely following the ground level politics in western Uttar Pradesh. The murder of Mohammad Akhlaq in Dadri, on the edge of the national capital, by a violent Hindu mob on Wednesday should come as no surprise to those who have been closely following the ground level politics in western Uttar Pradesh and the...

-The Statesman The toxicity of pesticides to humans, their ability to remain in the environment and accumulate in products require the establishment of strict scientifically substantiated regulations for their safe application. In India, the rules for using pesticides are worked out together by the Union ministries for agriculture and health. Every year, an approved “List of Chemical and Biological Means for Controlling Pests, Plant Diseases and Weeds Allowed to be used...

-Hindustan Times Patna: Guns and goons have played a key role in Bihar’s politics for decades. As the eastern state heads to the polls next month, outlaws with itchy trigger fingers as well as ‘baahubalis’, or strongmen, are back in the frame. Dozens of erstwhile gangsters have found their way into mainstream politics either directly or through spouses and relatives. Some of them will not contest the polls, but their influence can...

-BBC National Highway 44 is a road with a deadly reputation. Hyderabad: It connects India's north and south and has been blamed for the deaths of an alarming number of south Indian tribal villagers who live alongside it. One such village is Peddakunta, belonging to the Mahbubnagar district of Telangana, and lying adjacent to the highway bypass. Tiny Peddakunta is easy to locate because of its reputation as the "village of highway widows". In the...