IMPHAL, January 28: At least five foreign nationals including a couple from Switzerland and three Australians including a lady were detained by the State police this afternoon as soon as they arrived at the Imphal airport for violating the Restricted Area Permit (RAP) and Protected Area Permit (PAP) regulations. According to official sources, the Swiss couple who were reported to be bhaktas (devotees) of ISKCON were first detained by the police for not possessing the RAP or PAP to enter the state. The police officer on duty in Imphal airport contacted the ISKCON authorities in Imphal this...

IMPHAL, January 27: The State Samata Party president and sitting member of the 7th Manipur Legislative Assembly representing Kshetrigao Assembly constituency, Basantakumar Wangkhem, expired yesterday at a hospital in New Delhi following a heart attack. He was 52. The body of the deceased leader was brought from Delhi to Imphal today and arrived at the Imphal airport this afternoon at 1:45. It was received at the airport by the party leaders including legislators, party workers and well wishers especially from his constituency and members of his family and brought to the party office at BT Road...

IMPHAL, January 27: The reconvening of the postponed session of the 7th State Assembly remains uncertain despite Governor Ved Marwa's intimation to the Assembly Secretariat to convene the House within February 6. Assembly Secretariat sources said that the Secretariat has already submitted a proposal to Speaker S Dhananjoy for convening the House. However, there has not been any notification or intimation from the Speaker's side on the matter, the source said. In the meantime, reliable sources said that S Dhananjoy will be leaving the State capital for Chandigarh tomorrow to attend the...

AGARTALA, January 27: The ruling Left Front government is in a fix over the growing demand for reservations for the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in Tripura. In the monsoon session of the Assembly last year, the state government had said efforts would be made to hold discussions with the attorney-general in Delhi to take a final decision on the issue. But despite two successive meetings held by education minister Anil Sarkar, who is also in charge of Scheduled Caste affairs, the all-party team to be sent to Delhi could not be constituted in the absence of leader of the Opposition Jawahar Saha...

IMPHAL, January 27: The family members of Ningthoujam Sanjoy Singh who was found shot dead with another alleged member of PREPAK at Guwahati on January 24, has alleged that Sanjoy was innocent and was killed in custody. The alleged PREPAK man is identified as B Jasobanta of Wangjing. Family members said Sanjoy (23) son of Surendrakumar of Wahengbam Leikai was staying at a rented house near Roop Nagar and was waiting to pursue a computer course. Iterating that the youth is innocent, family members said that Sanjoy was picked up from his rented room in the adjoining night of January 22 and 23 by...