-The Indian Express A committee appointed by the Supreme Court to probe six cases of alleged extra-judicial killings in Manipur informed the court on Thursday that all the encounters were fake. The committee, comprising retired judge Santosh Hegde, former chief election commissioner J M Lyngdoh and former Karnataka police chief A K Singh, held that all the seven victims, including a 12-year-old boy, did not have any criminal background and had not...

-The Indian Express Nagpur: A Maharashtra forest department study, based on GPS and satellite imagery, shows that "ineligible forest areas are being claimed and granted for land plots (pattas) under the Forest Rights Act." The FRA gives traditional forest dwellers the right over lands they had encroached for farming, subject to a cutoff of December 31, 2005. The implementing authority is the tribal affairs department, a sore point with the forest...

-The Indian Express Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday granted anticipatory bail to a senior bank official accused of molesting a teenage girl, saying that "he is a high-profile person and has been exposed to humiliation already". Joginder Singh, a deputy general manager with the Oriental Bank of Commerce, was booked by the police for allegedly molesting a 16-year-old girl in the lift of his residential building in Vile Parle on...

-The Economic Times MUMBAI: India's strong stance on minor drug innovations could reverberate in national parliaments and courthouses of the developed world as Australia, the EU and Canada get ready to discuss and ban patent protection for frivolous improvements. A top Australian government body on Wednesday asked for changes in its patent laws relating to drugs saying that the indiscriminate grant of patents to incremental innovations should be checked and that...

-The Hindu   High Court has been hearing a petition by non-government organisation After years of harassment from the police and municipal authorities, there is finally some good news for the rickshaw pullers and owners. In compliance with the directions of the Delhi High Court, the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) on Wednesday announced a special drive for registration of cycle-rickshaws and rickshaw pullers through their Citizen Service Bureaus (CSB). Likewise, the North...