-The Hindu Operation Blossom Spring first taken up at Periye Authorities started the process of detoxifying endosulfan stocked in three warehouses of the Plantation Corporation of Kerala here on Sunday. Operation Blossom Spring was first taken up at the warehouse at Periye, transferring 914.55 litres of the pesticide in six corroded barrels to high-density polyethylene barrels. A team of personnel from Hindustan Insecticide Ltd. and the Kerala State Pollution Control Board and medical experts...

-The Hindu Witnesses who have testified against Janardhan Reddy and his men fear the mining baron's release from jail A torrent of calls flooded the CBI unit in Bangalore when T. Pattabhi Ramarao, the CBI judge in distant Hyderabad, granted bail to the jailed mining baron, G. Janardhan Reddy, on May 11. Many of the frantic calls were from the 300-plus witnesses painstakingly persuaded by the CBI-Bangalore to testify in the case registered...

-The Times of India Sitamarhi (Bihar): The Sitamarhi district administration on Sunday prevailed upon Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh and persuaded him not to venture into Naxal-dominated areas.  The minister wanted to visit a village for verification of rural development work there.  Led by the SP, the district administration asked the minister not to go to Giddha gram panchayat under Runnisaidpur block, 35km from the district headquarters. "We have received reports that...

-The Indian Express Only the names of the patients have changed. Acute encephalitis syndrome is back in Bihar, hitting the same districts as every year, its victims once again mostly children of Mahadalit communities living in various degrees of poverty, their resistance levels lowered by malnutrition and exposure to heat. And the government response has been repetitive to the point of being ritualistic. It has asked for Central assistance and set up...

—AFP U.S. President Barack Obama heads a list of high profile absentees for the Rio sustainable development summit this week where U.N. leaders say some tough decisions will have to be taken for the future of the planet. Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel and China's President Hu Jintao will also go to the Group of 20 rich nations' summit in Mexico but then head straight home before the...