-The Times of India   UP Lokayukta Justice N K Mehrotra has recommended registration of a case and a CBI and Enforcement Directorate probe against former state minister Babu Singh Kushwaha under the Prevention of Corruption and Money Laundering Act.  The Lokayukta has found him prima facie guilty of large-scale anomalies in allotment of mines and other financial irregularities and forwarded a report to chief minister Mayawati for necessary action.  "There were three specific...

-The Telegraph Google India, one of nearly two dozen online sites accused of hosting objectionable content, today said blocking them couldn’t be an option as that would violate the right to freedom of speech and expression in a democratic country. “There are serious issues regarding freedom of speech and we are proud to have this freedom in our country unlike a totalitarian regime like China,” the website’s counsel Neeraj Kishan Kaul told...

-The Times of India   "The cold, not cancer, may kill me" - the TOI story on the pitiable condition of patients and relatives braving the biting cold in wait for a bed in All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) drew an anguished reaction from the Supreme Court, which on Friday asked the Delhi government to urgently set up a night shelter either inside or close to the prestigious hospital. A bench...

-The Hoot The brutally fatal silencing of three journalists along with the sharp rise in censorship of content in online media and the increasing cases of defamation marked the deterioration of the climate for free speech across India in 2011. Attacks on journalists continued to be high, with 24 recorded instances even as writers, journalists and lawyers bore the brunt of the intolerance of vigilante groups to dissenting opinion. The Free Speech...

The Jharkhand government has appealed to Maoist rebels to make a fresh beginning in the New Year by surrendering to the rule of law, as it responded to feelers from a section of cadres, but did not promise any let-up in ongoing anti-rebel operations. The government gave a month’s time to active members of CPI(Maoist) to return to the mainstream, through an advertisement in local dailies on December 31. In the public...