Society

Americans now view secrecy about possible terrorist attacks differently, depending on the type of the plot. There are dramatic differences in the willingness to accept government secrecy across various types of threats, a new study has found. Policies that would withhold information about terrorist plots involving commercial airlines will not be acceptable to more than 80 per cent of the people, but information about threats to airports or the financial system can be withheld from the...

Biases in eyewitness identifications in police line-ups have been observed empirically. Now scientists would be finding out more about these biases to determine if people avoid pointing the finger at someone they like in a police line-up. Eyewitness misidentification is the biggest cause of wrongful convictions the world over. In the US alone, more than 75 percent of convictions have been overturned through DNA testing. Till now, however, no one has studied this aspect of human behaviour...

The Asia Foundation has launched a five-year, $6.8 million project to prevent human trafficking, protect victims, and prosecute traffickers in six districts in Nepal. Its own contributions will bring the total amount to approximately $7.4 million. The award, given by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), goes into effect immediately. Trafficking in persons is serious and widespread in Nepal, a country facing a deepening political crisis. Ongoing internal conflict and economic...

The online world is one of such hoaxes that it gets my goat quite too often. My mailboxes (I have loads of them, and they collectively get me hundreds of mails every day) collect email hoxes far too many for my sanity. Either I am too steeped in work or simply too lethargic to respond to the senders. The average sender, usually, is a friend who is blissfully naive or unaware of email hoaxes or both. He or she would have, in turn, got the mail from some friend of his/hers and would have forwarded...

If you were to look at the world from the point of view of how people reacted to the conviction of Sanjeev Nanda in the BMW hit-and-run case, you will find there are just two kinds of people. Those who cannot contain their glee at the contention that the law indeed has a long arm, and those who are shedding copious tears over the poor young fella having to pay for being rich and famous. Yes, the law has taken its own course. Nanda, few would disagree, was guilty as charged, and would certainly...

They are notorious for raping, and even gangraping, their female passengers. They are a nuisance on roads and are as infamous for accidents as Delhi’s Blueline buses are. They frequently get into fights with other people on the roads, and more often than not bash them up black and blue. This they do, and have been doing so, with impunity. They are the illegitimate children of the spoilt-rotten BPO industry – the cab drivers. Five people, including a 3-year-old girl, were injured on Tuesday night...

This swanky joint in plush South Delhi keeps setting standards that only it can alone emulate. After all, it is rather difficult to maintain yourself as a lowlife. In June, the Urban Pind joint denied entry to a young female photographer from Nagaland. The decision to do that was purely on racist grounds. When the incident degenerated into a news item, the joint's co-owner Kashif Farooq mumbled some feeble and incoherent excuses, and asserted that there would be no question of apologising. Some...

With curtains of mist on its blue-green mountains, the land is home to a haunted cliff, a demonic lake and a skully cave. You will actually feel the thrill in your bones as you learn of the ancient lores the tiny landlocked state, Mizoram, is steeped in. They are grandmother’s tales taking you back in time and place. And as you wind your way up the steep and rolling inclines, the zestful gasps of the clean, fresh mountain air remind you of the once pristine earth. But, to reach the loftiest peak...

Here's something that everyone knows except those in the fashion industry and the ardent adherents of their myths: men like curves, and thin is not really in. Fully 80 per cent of men aged 18-50 want a voluptuous woman, according to former model Nancy Hayssen, who has written a book every woman could love based on the title alone: 101 Sexy Secrets: How to Be Hot, Sexy & Beautiful at ANY Size! Another 15 per cent men prefer a woman of average size, while just 5 per cent opt for a super skinny...