War of words

“It has deprived other nations of their natural resources in order to put them at the service of its firms and monopolies.”

Dead communists help

Lenin and Marx helped Hungary raise money for victims of a toxic waste spill.

From the blurbs

Four fish, paul greenberg, Penguin, Rs 550

Your gods are mine

When patdehri (chief priest) Halu Thanapati, 68, gets possessed, he hastily dives into the badan khaal—the yoni of Goddess Duarseni, the supreme deity of his tribe—as though to suck the rare wisdom that ensures ‘existence’ on earth.

Science and Technology - Briefs

ARCHAEOLOGY Dino with a horn

Notice to Mundra for flouting laws

The Union environment ministry on December 15 issued a show cause notice to the Adani group promoted Mundra SEZ and Port in Gujarat. The ministry has asked the company to reply within 15 days as to why the clearances given to it for developing the port and a township should not be cancelled for environmental and coastal destruction. The ministry has charged the company with destruction of mangroves, reclamation of land and filling up of creeks without obtaining the mandatory clearance under the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) notification of 1991.

From the blurbs

MAO’S GREAT FAMINE: THE HISTORY OF CHINA’S MOST DEVASTATING CATASTROPHE,

POSCO’s port halt

The POSCO steel plant and port planned in Odisha’s Jagatsinghpur district have run into fresh trouble. An expert appraisal committee (EAC) of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests deferred its decision on clearing the port project, saying the South Korean steel giant did not furnish sufficient details.

Non-existent check post

Two months ago, residents of Thervoy Kandigai in Thiruvallur district of Tamil Nadu were set to take forward the fight to save their land. Despite their opposition, the environment ministry in August this year had given clearance to an industrial park near the village. The residents decided to challenge the validity of the clearance.

News 360°

Drought leaves amazon thirsty The Negro river, a major tributary of the Amazon in Brazil, dropped to a depth of about 14 metres, which is the lowest since record-keeping began in 1902. About 60,000 people have gone hungry as falling river levels hit transport, farming and fishing. Scientists blamed El Niño, a cyclical warming of tropical waters in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean, for it.