AIZAWL, July 1 ? Mizoram Chief Minister and Mizo National Front chief Zoramthanga on Wednesday said that he was willing to continue his peace mission in the North East after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asked him to continue broader peace deals with the region?s insurgent groups including the NSCN-IM.

Speaking at a Peace Day function here, Zoramthanga said he had gone to Bangkok four times to meet Naga rebel leaders like Th Muivah and Issac Chishi Swu in his efforts to bring the NSCN to the negotiating table with the Centre in Delhi. ?We were engaged in peace talks with the Centre for 15...

AGARTALA, July 1 ? An executive member of Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council has been kidnapped by militants of the banned National Liberation Front of Tripura (Biswamohan faction) from his house in South Tripura district, police said today. A group of about 10 armed tribal insurgents stormed into Ravijoy Reang?s house at Haticherra at 11 p.m. last night and abducted him at gunpoint.

The militants also took away one 9 mm revolver and ten rounds of live cartridges from Reang?s personal security officer Mahim Debberma, police said. Reang is a prominent leader of National Socialist...

GUWAHATI, July 1 ? The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, an apex bank of India working for the development of rural areas, is implemented a ?special plan? from April 1, 2004 to protect Assam from a rat-induced famine, which is likely to hit the State economy hard within two years. Conceptually, a ?famine? is a crisis period caused by low agricultural production leading to shortage of food and other necessities. Going by previous experience, it is expected that the next round of large-scale flowering of bamboo in the region will occur anytime between 2005 and 2007.

It has...

DIBRUGARH, July 1 ? Oil India Limited (OIL) has been upgraded to Schedule ?A? and has thus become the first North East based company to be given Schedule ?A? status. This will provide the company with higher investment power and greater autonomy to the management. The message to this effect from the company?s corporate office at New Delhi today has been received at Duliajan this afternoon amidst much rejoicing.

Main focus of the company remains the North East where the company has further intensified its exploration & development efforts particularly in frontier areas in order to enhance...

GUWAHATI, July 1 ? Environmental activist group Nature?s Beckon today demanded of the State Forest Department to substantiate with physical evidence its claim that the State had now got its forest cover extended by 5.3 per cent. This rate of increase in the forest cover means that there is more than 4,000 square km of forest added to the State?s existing forest cover, said Nature?s Beckon director Soumyadeep Datta while addressing a press conference here this morning. Such a size of forest will need the State to create 20 forests of the size of the Nameri National Park, he said.

State?s...