-The Times of India Fewer countries are carrying out executions than a decade ago, but India along with nations like Gambia, Pakistan and Japan bucked the trend to resume handing out death penalties. An Amnesty International report says that 21 countries executed convicts last year as compared to 28 in 2003. But there is greater concern that Indian courts had meted out at least 78 death sentences with more than 400 estimated...

-The Hindu   Court order will not impact the trial against Panewala: CBI Even as the Sessions court order, rejecting the CBI clean chit to Congress leader Jagdish Tytler ensures that the investigation into the 1984 riots case will continue, the trial against the other accused person in the case, Suresh Kumar alias Panewala, who is charged with murder and rioting, is nearing completion. A CBI source said the agency has completed the examination...

-The Hindu     The shortened lifespan of the quarry workers of Uttar Pradesh is spent breaking stones and residing among the pollution- laden boulders Mired with sandy roads and rocky terrain, the landscape in south-western Allahabad creates a remarkable mirage under the blue sky. Some of the larger rocks here have sizeable craters formed in them -- a sign of their depletion over time, by an activity that is hazardous yet critical to the...

-The Times of India The ghost of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots has returned yet again to haunt Congress leader JagdishTytler. A sessions court on Wednesday ordered reopening of the case against him despite CBI giving him the clean chit twice. The former Union minister is accused of instigating a mob on November 1, 1984, whose actions led to the death of three persons taking shelter in a gurdwara. Setting aside the order of...

-The Times of India Recognizing that the plethora of dams built and planned in the Ganga basin could almost empty the river of its waters in the winter season, an inter-ministerial group has recommended that the projects be re-engineered to maintain 30-50% of water flow in the lean period of December-March. The group headed by Planning Commission member B K Chaturvedi also recommended that electricity production in the existing and upcoming dams...