-The United Nations   The United Nations launched a new web portal today focusing on helping girls and women access job opportunities, training and career advice in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector. The website – girlsinict.org – was designed to inspire and help young women between the ages of 11 and 25 prepare for and pursue careers in technology by providing them with useful resources such as links to scholarships, internships,...

-The Indian Express   The last time he was at the Jaipur Literature Festival, Salman Rushdie was barely noticed. He spent three days in the city in 2007, and faced no protests. Some of the protesters this time agree that few had known about that visit. The opposition began with the Darul Uloom Deoband in UP before being taken up in Rajasthan, where the protests were spearheaded by Amin Pathan, chairperson for the...

-The United Nations Cooperatives and producer organizations will be increasingly important in efforts to eliminate hunger and reduce poverty, the head of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said today. “FAO needs strong cooperatives and producer organizations as key partners in the effort to eliminate hunger for some 925 million people, and to respond to the many challenges that face our world today,” said Director-General José Graziano da Silva. He told...

-Express News Service   An engineer accused in the UP National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scam was found shot through the head in his Lucknow home this morning. This is the fourth accused in the scam to have died under unusual circumstances. In an apparent “suicide note” left behind on the living room sofa close to where the body was found, Sunil Kumar Verma, an assistant engineer with the Construction and Design Services...

-PTI   Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said "perversions" like paid news had come as a shock but censorship was no answer and favoured self-regulation for the media. "It is true that sometimes irresponsible journalism can have serious consequences for social harmony and public order, which the public authorities have an obligation to maintain, but censorship is no answer," he said at a function to launch a book 'The Tribune 130 years:...