"Two persons were killed and five sustained injuries in the incident at Vadditandra village," said Srikakulam SP KVV Gopal Rao, adding some several policemen were also hurt.

The situation at the project site where East Coast Energy Pvt Ltd is developing a 2,640 MW Super Critical Coal fired power project in Santhabommali Mandal continues to be tense for the past two days after the policemen disrupted the fast undertook by some fishermen and villagers on Saturday.

"Isn't this place like the other planet shown in the film? And aren't our adivasi brothers just like the Naavi people? Simple and innocent".

Clad in his trademark saffron, at striking contrast with the greens and browns of the forest, the 71 year old social activist was on his way to free five policemen held hostage for 18 days by the Maoists. The destination was an undisclosed location somewhere inside Abhujmaad, literally the unknown forest, in Chhattisgarh's Bastar region. And accompanying the Swami, were a group of human right activists, a gaggle of media, and the distraught families of the captured policemen.

"I want my munna back," wept Amarwati Devi, tears rolling down her creased face, half covered with the pallu of her saree. The old woman had travelled with her daughter from a village in Rewa, Madhya Pradesh by tonga, train, bus, and car. Like the others, she was finally trekking in the jungle to reunite with her 26 year old son.

A group of 40 Nobel laureates from 12 countries has signed a petition for the immediate release on bail of activist-doctor Binayak Sen. Following the lead of Amartya Sen, these laureates have also expressed their support for Dr. Sen.

The senior-most laureate in the group is 91-year-old French scientist François Jacob (Nobel Prize, 1965). It also includes Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, who won the award in 2009, Joseph Murray who pioneered kidney transplantation, and Baruch Samuel Blumberg who identified the Hepatitis B virus

On Wednesday, the HC division bench of Justice T P Sharma and Justice R L Jhanwar reserved an order on his bail plea after the prosecution wrapped up its arguments.

Opposing the bail plea, additional advocate general Kishore Bhaduri, representing Chhattisgarh government, argued that Sen had been convicted guilty on serious charges.

As we await for the order, this is the complete interview with eminent jurist and BJP MP Ram Jethmalani, a part of it has already played. Speaking for the first time after his return from Chhattisgarh, Mr Jethmalani said that the prosecution is ill-advised and unsustainable, the motive is to see Binayak Sen damned and, that he has not mortgaged his conscience to his party.

The initiative comes following a telephonic conversation between Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh and social activist Swami Agnivesh on Tuesday. Swami Agnivesh had been contacted by Maoist leaders, who expressed their willingness to free the policemen in the presence of activists only if the security personnel stay away.

"The government has agreed to suspend the search operations for 24 hours as the people involved in the negotiations requested the Chief Minister to agree to such a demand of the Maoists," said a government spokesman, hoping all the hostages would be freed safely within a couple of days.

Activists brought out booklets containing the writings of Azad alias Cherukuri Rajkumar, about jailed paediatrician-cum-rights activist Binayak Sen, and in support of the Maoist movement in the fair held at the Milan Mela ground.

by Stan Swamy

The context: The Indian Govt believes in gun, money, bureaucrats, corporates. It does not believe in people and their institutions of self-governance, self-empowerment

Of late the Indian Govt is speaking a strange language. It only speaks in terms of the money it is allocating (1) for the maintenance of the vast number of troops stationed in the naxal-affected districts of central India (Rs. 724 crores for the year 2010 - 11); (2) for the so-called Integrated Action Plan (IAP) for selected Tribal & Backward Districts to be implemented by the DC, SP, DFO of the respective districts (Rs. 3,300 crores for 2010-11). No one is supposed to ask unwarranted questions such as how qualified, equipped are these officials to undertake rural development work.

Dhinkia, Nuagaon, Gadkujang; Jagatsinghpur District, Orissa

The decision of Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh to give a comprehensive OK to the POSCO India Steel-Power Production-Captive Port project, based on some additional conditions, is nothing short of a total sell out to the politics of power and international capital. In a climate where each and every Minister of the Union Government is tumbling over with scandals, Ramesh had stood tall taking one brave legally and ethically correct decision after another. An acid test for him to continue this streak of decision making in the wider public interest, keeping in view intergenerational interests as well, was about the POSCO project. By his decision today to clear the project Ramesh has failed not only his own legacy, but has attacked the very rule of law based decision making that he has so often been harping on to be the basis of his functioning.

It is well known that the POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samithi, a peaceful movement of affected communities, has been systematically raising the deep, inter-generational and irreversible impacts of allowing this massive project to come up in the ecologically sensitive Jagatsinghpur district of Orissa.