This apart, democracy in a country presupposes the sovereignty that the country must possess. And this sovereignty in turn presupposes independence. So without independence, this sovereignty is a misnomer, likewise the talk of ‘democracy’ without this sovereignty is not only meaningless but a hoax as well.

If there is an Indian equivalent of the Tiger Woods phenomenon, where a young person makes an unexpected and dramatic impact on a sport and its popular perception, it is undoubtedly Sania Mirza. Sania has emerged not just a superb sportsperson, but a youth icon, indeed a “brand” in her own right.

(New York, February 16, 2005) -- The Nepalese army is preventing
local journalists and rights activists from publicizing abuses by the
military or criticizing any government action, Human Rights Watch
said today.

This is coffee territory, yet you cannot get the local brew in any restaurant here. Drop in at the Coffee Board in Kalpetta to enquire why this is so - and they offer you a cup of tea. P Sainath continues his series on the agrarian crisis in Kerala's Wayanad region.

Imports of pepper from Sri Lanka, including large quantities that are simply routed through that country but not actually produced there, have devastated farmers in Wayanad, home of the world's best pepper. P Sainath continues his series on the agrarian crisis in this region.

In 2004 two laws have been proposed – a seed Act and a Patent Ordinance which could forever destroy the biodiversity of our seeds and crops, and rob farmers of all freedoms, establishing a seed dictatorship.

Any day that can bring people together to break the feudal, castist and violent Indian society is welcome.

Letter to NHRC re Disinformation campaign by the police and sections of the media in the case relating to the murderous attack on Prof. S. A. R. Geelani

More than the earthquake, it’s the disastrous impact of tsunamis that has shaken our country and the world. The death toll and the unprecedented destruction in the coastal region have posed a challenge before the human civilisation, which is both short term and long term.

Remembering The First Siege Of Fallujah: Excerpts From Testimony Submitted To The World Tribunal On Iraq, University of Rome (III), February 10-13, 2005

Mumbai police intensified cracking down the struggle against slum
demolitions, by arresting over 100 people who opposed turning the land
where they lived into a garbage dumping ground, in Rafiq Nagar, Gowandi
around 11 in the morning. Most of them under arrest are women and
children.

It's been over forty five days since the tsunami struck the coast of Kerala killing about 180 people and rendering thousands homeless but the relief work carried out by government agencies in Kerala has been far from satisfactory.

The Kerala High Court Verdict on the Suryanelli Sex Racket Case – An Appeal from the Defence Committee.

India looks set to soon be the world leader, according to research by Keshav Kranthi, a senior scientist at India's Central Institute for Cotton Research.

11 February, 2005 [Released on 12 February 2005]

LAHORE: the office-holders and Bureau members of South Asians for Human Rights (SAHR) have demanded immediate withdrawal of measures announced by the King of Nepal on February 1, and revival of constitutional rule in the kingdom.

...please please...see the following: advertising the "Men's Night Out" where that insane pictoral account of military recruitment in a Kentucky church

Dear All,
this report is part of larger, hopefully more indepth study of identity loss in Sreenivasapuram - a fishing village on the marina beach in chennai. for this particular article, we focussed solely on ration cards. i hope to expand it further and include voter id cards and death certificates.

From the 28th of December onwards a group of us have been helping out with relief work in the tsunami affected villages of Nagapattinam (Tamil Nadu) and Karaikal (Pondicherry). Of the several issues that we encountered the most saddening was that of caste-based discrimination in the relief distribution. During this time we worked with various dalit groups in identifying dalit villages, which the government hadn´t listed as tsunami-affected, and then organising for relief to be reached there. This has been going on for the past three weeks now and now we see another problem looming. That of food security. Livelihoods have been destroyed and it will take time for it to be restored implying that until such time the affected families would be in extremely vulnerable situations. It is in this context that we are trying to get the Right To Food campaign people to immediately intervene. There is a small write-up that we have put together that gives a sense of possible ways ahead.

Dear friends,

here i've pasted another emial written by n Nepali journalist which i received on February 9. hopefully here you may have find some important information regarding Napal.

regards

Sultana Rahman, staff reporter, the daily star, Bangladesh

We consider the murderous attack on Prof. Syed Abdul Geelani, a teacher of Arabic in Zakir Hussain College, Delhi University, on 8 February, 2005, an assault on Indian democracy itself. Prof. Geelani's life has always been in danger ever since he was falsely implicated in the Parliament attack case and was subsequently acquitted of all charges by the High Court in Delhi.