-The Hindu   The land acquisition process by the Orissa government for the Posco project in the Dhinkia gram panchayat of Jagatsinghpur district did not make any headway on Saturday following resistance by members of a five-party delegation and villagers. The gram panchayat remained a hostile region for the district administration that had in the past fortnight stepped up the land acquisition process for the steel plant. With children and women at the...

"The Earth upon which the sea, and the rivers and waters, upon which food and the tribes of man have arisen, upon which this breathing, moving life exists, shall afford us precedence in drinking." - Prithvi Sukta, Atharva Veda Land is life. It is the basis of livelihoods for peasants and indigenous people across the Third World and is also becoming the most vital asset in the global economy. As the...

Senior lawyer and Kashmir Committee chief Ram Jethmalani has demanded that the Armed Forces Special Powers Act and the Public Safety Act be revoked, expressing concern at the human rights situation in the State. At the end of the committee's five-day visit to Kashmir, he told journalists that New Delhi was partly responsible for the situation. He said he would constitute a group of lawyers in Delhi to fight the cases...

On a day when the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) issued notice to the government seeking reports within two weeks on the early morning crackdown on Baba Ramdev's supporters on the Ramlila Grounds here on Sunday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described the episode as “unfortunate” but justified it, saying there was “no alternative.” In his first comments on the episode here, Dr. Singh told journalists: “It is unfortunate that the operation...

An arrest in a small corner of Chhattisgarh has become the subject of an 'urgent action' petition circulating worldwide. Amnesty International, a human rights watchdog, has urged people to write to authorities "calling on them to drop the false charges against Ramesh Agrawal and Dr Harihar Patel and release them immediately". A week ago, Agrawal and Patel were arrested in Raigarh based on a complaint filed by Jindal Power Limited. A...