India just carried out one of its largest-ever covert operations in peacetime, striking a Myanmar-based terrorist group and killing over 100 of its members. The National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Khaplang), known more popularly by its initials NSCN-K, was targeted because of the terrorist attack it pulled off last week in the Northeast Indian state of Manipur. In the worst ambush suffered by the …
STUDY: Farmer suicides in rained areas of India correlate with Bt cotton adoption
An important new paper by respected researchers deconstructs the false hype around Bt insecticidal cotton in India. The study shows that: * Bt cotton, introduced in 2002 to control bollworm and other pests, is grown on more than 90% of the cotton area * By 2013 insecticide use was high – back to 2000 levels (before the introduction of Bt …
Seeds of doubt: Monsanto never had Bt cotton patent – Shishir Arya & Snehlata Shrivastav
Fourteen years after US multinational Monsanto brought the genetically modified (GM) Bt Cotton (Bollgard) to India, there is no clarity on the discovery having ever been patented in the country. Clueless Indian farmers and seed manufacturers have paid crores as royalty to the company from 2002 until 2006, when the company came out with Bollgard 2, which was, incidentally, patented. …
Organic farming thrives in India as growers revert back to traditional methods by Julie Wilson
Thousands of farmers throughout India are reverting back to traditional farming methods as the consequences of Western agriculture have begun to negatively impact the region’s food and water supply, and the health of its people. More than 40 years after the “Green Revolution,” a period in which India’s agricultural yields skyrocketed following the introduction of commercial farming techniques, growers are …
Insane Heat Wave in Alaska Put Temperatures Higher Than in Arizona – Cole Mellino
Alaska, along with the rest of the Arctic, has been warming even faster than other regions of the world due to climate change. That was the findings of a report this spring from the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, which found that the rate of warming will only continue to increase in the coming decades. The signs of rapid warming in Alaska were everywhere this past …
The Case Against Manifest Destiny – César Chelala
The disastrous consequences of the recent aggressions against Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen and Ukraine, to name just a few, show the urgent need to revive the principle of non-intervention into another state. This principle of international law includes, but is not limited to, the prohibition of the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of …
Roads Melting, Death Toll Soaring as ‘Unprecedented’ Heatwave Grips India – Jon Queally
The deathtoll related to an ongoing and “unprecedented” heatwave in India has soared to nearly 1,200 people, according to the nation’s health ministry on Wednesday, with no respite for hundreds of millions of people expected until at least the weekend. According to officials quoted in the Hindustan Times, most of the victims have been construction workers, the elderly or the homeless. In …
Connect the World or Capture It? Critics Raise Alarm Over Facebook’s Spurious Internet.org – Lauren McCauley
Privacy rights and open internet advocates are sounding the alarm after Facebook on Monday announced changes to its “free” Internet for the developing world, dubbed Internet.org, which critics say threatens to make the social networking company the de facto Internet “gatekeeper” for hundreds of millions worldwide. Branded as an initiative to “connect the two thirds of the world that doesn’t …
Half of India’s groundwater is poisonous – Akash Vashishtha
Already grappling with the Ganga cleaning project, the government seems to have a bigger problem at hand as the groundwater in more than half of the country’s districts is contaminated with poisonous substances.Groundwater in at least 387 districts has high nitrate levels The Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) has come up with a shocking assessment, according to which 276 districts …
Move Over Mexico: China Now Sends Most Immigrants to US – RALPH TURCHIANO
China has replaced Mexico as the top country of origin for immigrants to the United States, according to a new review of 2013 immigration data. The American Census Bureau study, conducted primarily by statistician/demographer Eric Jensen, was based on annual immigration data collected from the years 2000 through to 2013. It found that of 1,201,000 immigrants in the US, 147,000 …