President Nasheed of Maldives is literally fighting with his back to the wall to ensure that his 1,200-island state does not sink because of the rising sea levels.
A two-day visit to India saw Mr Nasheed stress on how Maldives has been described as “one of the most vulnerable countries due to the impact of climate change” by the prestigious Portugal-based Climate Vulnerable Monitor 2010.

Home minister P. Chidambaram had spoken to Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik during the hostage crisis following the abduction of IAS officer and Malkangiri district collector R.V. Krishna by the CPI (Moist) indicating that any move to release Maoists in exchange of Mr Krishna should not set a precedent for the future.

The first batch of Indians living in Libya are expected to be brought home by Saturday evening. Two Air India aircraft — a Boeing-747 from Mumbai and an Airbus-330 from Delhi — will airlift them from Tripoli. The Boeing-747 and Airbus-330 have a passenger capacity of 360 and 280, respectively. The Libyan government has given landing

The pre-Budget Economic Survey released on Friday has called for better implementation of government policies and reform in the education sector to help make the young population of India a part of its growth story.

Expressing concern over the rising demand-supply gap in food items leading to high food prices, the Economic Survey 2001-11 said the Indian agriculture is at a “crossroads”.

Asserting that tax evader Hasan Ali Khan would not be allowed to escape from the country, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday informed the Lok Sabha that due process of law will be followed in tackling the cases of black money stashed abroad.

The telecom minister in the NDA regime, Arun Shourie, on Friday said: “The change during former minister of communications & IT Dayanidhi Maran’s tenure came in the guidelines of 2005 whereas the Trai did not recommend it till 2007. That is how some operations were planned that could not go through and Mr Raja acted on them.” Mr

The BJP’s nomination of former Union ministers — Jaswant Singh and Yashwant Sinha — to the Joint Parliamentary Committee in the spectrum allocation scam could lead to a controversy with the Congress planning to raise objections. This was indicated here on Friday evening.

A talk of curtailing the Budget Session of Parliament is gaining ground in the ruling Congress-led UPA because of the Assembly elections in five states. The total strength of these states in the Lok Sabha alone is 116.

The CBI on Friday arrested the chairman and managing director of National Aluminium Company Limited (Nalco), A.K. Srivastava, and his wife for allegedly accepting bribes. Two of their accomplices were also arrested.