-The Hindu   The Union Cabinet is likely to meet either on December 18 or 19 after the return of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh from Russia to take a call on the contentious issues related to the Lokpal Bill on the basis of inputs given by the Parliamentary Standing Committee and the all-party meet on Wednesday night. According to Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, the government intends to move the Bill in...

Besides taking into account the different viewpoints of parties on modalities of inclusion of the office of Prime Minister in the Lokpal Bill and the scope of the proposed ombudsman over the CBI and the CVC, the Union Cabinet would take into consideration the ‘sense of the House' resolution adopted by Parliament in August committing itself to three specific issues raised by social activist Anna Hazare. On August 27, Parliament urged...

Delegates clashed over attempt to make agreement legally binding until deal was struck in pre-dawn hours Countries have agreed a deal in Durban to push for a new climate treaty, salvaging the latest round of United Nations climate talks from the brink of collapse. The UK's cimate change secretary, CHRIs Huhne, hailed the deal, finally struck in the early hours of Sunday after talks had overrun by a day and a half,...

The Kandhamal violence of 2008 “meets all the elements of crimes against humanity,” said the report of the Justice-A.P. Shah-headed National People's Tribunal on Kandhamal, which was released here on Saturday. The report recommends the constitution of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to re-examine the First Information Reports already registered, to file fresh FIRs where necessary and to recommend remedial measures where trials had been vitiated because of intimidation of witnesses...

-Reuters   Kyoto Protocol extended; environmentalists, small nations say deal lacks ambition, does not do enough Climate negotiators agreed to a pact on Sunday that would for the first time force all the biggest polluters to take action on greenhouse gas emissions, but critics said the action plan was not aggressive enough to slow the pace of global warming. The package of accords extended the Kyoto Protocol, the only global pact that enforces carbon...