GUWAHATI, Feb 2— The need to develop the north-eastern region, particularly Assam, as the business hub centre of the South-East Asian countries will be the main thrust of the presentation to be made by the Minister of State for Home and Industries, Pradyut Bordoloi, who is a member of the Indian trade delegation to attend the international conference of the SE Asian countries to be held at Dhaka on February 6 and 7 under the Kunming initiative. Talking to The Assam Tribune here today, Bordoloi said that the Kunming initiative for regional cooperation was launched following the visit of the...

GUWAHATI, Feb 2 – In their continued attack on non-Bodos, National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) militants killed five persons in lower Assam’s Kokrajhar district today. Official sources said five persons of Nepali-origin had gone to the Chirang reserve forest near Ultapani to collect firewoods when the militants shot and killed them on the spot.

AIZAWL, Feb 1 — The third round of talks between the Mizoram government and the Bru National Liberation Front on repatriation of Bru refugees lodged in camps in Tripura and other issues, schedule for Thursday, have been postponed as BNLF representatives failed to turn up, reports PTI. Officials in the state home department said that the next date would be decided by the BNLF and conveyed to the state government. The last round of talks was held in November. The parleys between the two parties assumed added significance after the Mizoram government linked repatriation of the Bru refugees in...

ITANAGAR, Feb 1 — A police team killed an elephant on a magisterial order after the animal was declared ‘rogue’, reports PTI. The pachyderm had killed a labourer besides damaging four vehicles and two residential buildings near Ramdas in West Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh. Deputy superintendent of police T Ringu told PTI over phone from Bomdila, the district headquarters, that the Bhalukpong-Seppa road was closed for the last two days after the elephant went berserk and pushed three vehicles including an oil tanker down the deep valley and completely damaged a state transport bus. With...

GOLAKGANJ, Feb 1— Indo-Bangla border fencing in different places of Dhubri district, planned in order to check illegal cross-border activities, is yet to be completed. About 120 km of Indo-Bangla border falls in Dhubri district, out of which 46 kms towards the north bank of the river Brahmaputra and few kms from Mankachar to Deepchar (pillar No 1052) towards the south bank of the river has already been completed a few years back. However, in about 60 kms area in the district, the border is open due to the non-completion of border fencing. Out of this about 25 km in covered by the water body of...