E D I T O R I A L
Our Polluted World
Thousands of experts, politicians, policy planners, slum dwellers and social activists who met in world’s most livable city, Vancouver for five days shared their concerns about our unlivable cities. Thousands who watched and listened to the intense debate where all the nations of the world were represented, were equally alarmed at the increasing  poverty and  lack of basic amenities like water, sanitation and clean air. More

F O C U S
Muddled Minds and Hungry People
Gobind Thukral
EVER since India attained freedom, feeding its millions living in villages has been the avowed goal of each successive government. Haunted by the perennial specter of harvesting too little food for this one tenth of humanity, the people have looked towards the government for help. More

US Laws Hit Tourism in Canada
TOURISM is a $57.5 billion industry in Canada .American tourists account for almost $10 billion of that total. Some $4.4 billion of that money is spent in Ontario alone. In comparison figures for the softwood lumber industry where exports account for $11 billion to the U.S. pale away. More

A N A L Y S I S
Tamil Tigers: New Tactics in Sri Lanka
Gobind Thukral
HAVE Tamil tigers changed their spots or else is it an illusion created to end their increasing isolation and worldwide ban on their activities. Feeling the squeeze  from several quarters including ban on its activates by the European Union and America, besides India where they often  raise funds and arms supplies, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have  deeply regretted the May 21, 1991 assassination of the former Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, and described it as a "monumental historical tragedy." More

L A W  &  J U S T I C E
US Patriot Act: Civil Liberties under Threat
Joginder Singh Toor
THE origin of right to privacy is traced in America from an article jointly written by D. Warren and Louis D. Brandeis in 1890, which paved a way for statutory recognition of this right. In 1928, Brandeis, then a US supreme court justice, described this right of “to be let alone” as the most comprehensive and valued right of the civilized people. More

F E A T U R E S
Outward Bound Ho!
Lally Sidhu
THE craze for foreign lands has no limits. A Punjabi youth would do anything, literally. He can fake passports, identities and religion and travel to any country to land up finally either in Europe, America, Canada and even Dubai just to make fast bucks. More

Depleting Water Resources Threaten Punjab
Dr. Joginder Singh
PUNJAB, land of five rivers, located at the base of Himalayas was once very rich in water resources. The high potential agriculture that relieved the country from famines and hunger also meant excessive withdrawal of underground water. This indiscriminate use has caused serious environmental imbalances. More

C O M M E N T
Punjab Development Initiative launched at the House of Commons
JOHN McDonnell (MP) Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Punjabis in Britain and Rob Marris (MP), Treasurer of the Group, launched the Punjab Development Initiative at the House of Commons this evening. More

Nepal: Another Move Towards Democracy
WHEN Chairman of the CPN-Maoist Prachanda alias Pushpa Kamal Dahal met PM Girija Prasad Koirala at the latter's official residence at Baluwatar on June 16, closeness between the two was clear much to the chagrin of those opposing democracy from within Nepal and from India. More

D O C U M E N T
The Eight-point SPA-Maoist agreement
THE Eight-point agreement reached between the seven-party alliance and CPN-Maoist following summit talks between the two sides at Baluwatar on June 16, 2006 More

L I T E R A T U R E
Punjabi writers in Limbo
No easy solutions in sight
Dr. Jaspal Singh
Punjabi writers milling about in the corridors of various Sahit Academies seem to be totally oblivious of the fact that something very serious has gone wrong with their creativity. The problem is, as the ranks of the writers swell, the number of readers decline who now seem to have become an endangered species. More

M E D I A
Press under Fire
FOR long journalists in strife torn Bangladesh have been under attack. Most of the times, it is the ruling party that unleashes its goons and adopts other arms twisting measures to teach lessons to ‘inconvenient’ media persons and newspapers offices. More

POETRY
by Vinod Anand

• "TRUTH"

• "CROWDS"

LETTERS
I am reading your paper from time to time.  It is analytical and informative. At Bangalore I attended a talk on Subaltern Studies: Law and social Movements in the form of a discussion by Gayatri Chakravarty Spivacc, Professor of Columbia University USA and Prof. Upendra Buxi, also professor of law in an USA university.