TEZU, Jan 29 ? The Union Civil Aviation Ministry will continue to give top priority to air connectivity in the North East, Union Civil Aviation Minister Syed Shahnawaz Hussain said here today. More and more towns in the region will be brought under the air map, he said. Hussain, who was speaking to The Assam Tribune on the sidelines of the ongoing Brahmaputra Darshan Festival here today, said that from next year Haj flights will be introduced from Guwahati airport. This will come as a major relief for hundreds of Haj pilgrims who have to travel outside the region to take the flight to Mecca...

SHILLONG, Jan 29 ? Meghalaya Police is investigating possible British connection of the banned Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC). East Khasi Hills District SP, Ida Nongrang this evening told newsmen that the External Affairs Ministry has been approached to verify the antecedents of a British national, Timothy Paul Minds, student of Oxford Brooks University.

The development emerged after the police today arrested a HNCL overground activist in the State capital and recovered one American M-16 rifle and a Chinese assault rifle in a raid. The police also recovered some ammunition and...

NEW DELHI, Jan 28 ? Insurgents fighting the security forces may soon have a tough time, with the Union Government planning to procure 64,000 AK-47 assault rifles. The global tenders for the same has been floated by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

This was revealed by Deputy Prime Minister, L K Advani at the meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee here yesterday. In addition, the MHA is also incurring an expenditure of Rs 647 crore for strengthening the air power of the Central paramilitary forces.

The major modernisation initiative also included procurement of 14 floating...

CHANDUBI, Jan 29 ? Fed up with the secluded life on the uninhabited island of Juan, Fernandez Alexander Selkirk, the explorer and navigator considered his lonely life a curse bereft of society. Pinning to return to the arms of humanity, he admitted , Friendship and Love, Divinely bestowed upon man

........ of a love

........ I taste you again!

Truely. So have the employes of Chandubi tourist lodge. A government job has forced them to stay off the beaten track here at Chandubi. In the solitude of forests they looked unhappy because of unending wait to welcome visitors which was a non-event...

GUWAHATI, Jan 29 ? The South Asia Enterprise Development Facility (SEDF) signed an MoU with the NEDFi in order to boost the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) portfolio of the NEDFi so that the Corporation gets helped in respect of reducing its outstanding non-performing loans.

The SEDF headquartered at Dhaka is a multi-donor organisation promoted by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and managed by the SME Department of the World Bank.

The SEDF?s overall objective is to enhance competitiveness and growth of SMEs in the north-east India are starved off funds, the SEDF will try...