Guwahati, Jan. 19: Cut off from the nerve centre of the very party he founded 19 years ago, Prafulla Kumar Mahanta is certain to stake claim to the position of pre-eminence that was once his during the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP)?s annual conclave later this month.

An aide of the former chief minister said he would announce his candidature for the AGP president?s post, now held by Brindaban Goswami, ?within the next few days?.

He said Mahanta, who led the AGP unchallenged for 16 years till 2001, would use all his ?resources and political acumen? to wrest the reins of the party from Goswami.

The...

Guwahati, Jan. 19: A city court today extended the judicial remand of three top Ulfa leaders, including founder member Bhimkanta Buragohain, till January 30 and asked the jail authorities to take ?proper care? of the banned outfit?s publicity chief Mithinga Daimary after he complained of chest pain.

Kamrup chief judicial magistrate Rumi Kumari Phukan, however, ended the hearing without taking up the bail applications filed by the families of the three militant leaders. The reason was an unscheduled holiday on account of a lawyer?s death.

Apart from Buragohain and Daimary, Ulfa cultural...

Guwahati, Jan. 19: Four elephants were electrocuted when they came in contact with an electric pole at Belugari on the Assam-Meghalaya border in the early hours yesterday. Delayed reports reaching here said the incident happened in Belugari in West Garo Hills district of Meghalaya. The spot is just a km away from Lakhipur forest range of Assam.

As the area is sparsely populated, the information was received here only this evening.

?A herd of Asiatic elephants was moving in the area. Some of them dashed against an electric pole through which a transmission line was passing,? Goalpara divisional...

Agartala, Jan. 19: More than 300 people have been rotting in the jails of Tripura because an amendment to the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) made by the state government, extending the duration of remand for undertrials, ceased to have effect from October 31.

While many judges have been refusing police plea for remand beyond the normal period sanctioned by the Indian Penal Code (IPC), others continue to send arrested people to jail remand for 120 or 180 days.

According to sources, on May 26 last year, the state government tabled an amendment of clause 439-A of the Criminal Procedure Code...

Khonsa (Tirap), Jan. 19: The Noctes of Arunachal Pradesh have buried the practice of exposing the dead on raised platforms for nature to perform the last rites.

Kheti village, near Khonsa town, was the last Nocte-inhabited village to give up the custom for the more practical method of burying the dead. The change came about after social reformers and religious leaders campaigned against the age-old custom, explaining to the villagers that decomposed bodies lying in the open were responsible for the frequent outbreaks of disease.

?The stench was intolerable. Worse still, the unhygienic...