27 People Killed in Assam Fatal Bus Accident

Guwahati, May 31 : At least 25 people were feared killed and six injured in Assam when a bus carrying a marriage party plunged into a gorge after hitting a wooden bridge late Monday, officials said.

The accident took place around 11 p.m. Monday near village Charabari in Kamrup district, about 30 km from Assam's main city of Guwahati.

The dead included the groom and relatives.

The bus was on its way from Guwahati to Tihu in Nalbari district.

"The marriage rituals were to take place early Tuesday, with the bus on its way with the groom to the bride's house in Tihu when the accident took place," police official A. Das said.

According to witnesses, the driver probably failed to notice the wooden bridge without any railings or signposts and then straightway plunged into a deep gorge.

"Six people were rescued by locals and admitted to local hospitals, while 25 bodies were recovered so far with rescue workers trying to fish out more bodies," the police official said.

There were 43 passengers on board the bus.

Nigerian Arrested For Murdering Girlfriend

Chong alias Cecelia

New Delhi, May 31 : A Nigerian national was arrested from south Delhi for murdering his Myanmarese girlfriend and dumping her body in a travel bag earlier this month, police said Monday.

Innocent Nwayo, 31, was arrested Sunday from Kotla Mubarakpur when he came to visit his friend Prince Michael, police said.

He killed his 22-year-old girlfriend May 20 and left the travel bag containing her body in his rented house in west Delhi's Uttam Nagar. After the murder he fled to Mumbai.

"The murder took place after the two entered into a scuffle as the victim suspected that Nwayo was attracted to a girl who came to their house along with three more friends April 28," a police official said.

"The body was found in a black travel bag. When the bag was opened it contained a decomposed body of a woman found wrapped in a blanket and tied with a plastic rope," police said.

The victim, identified as Chong alias Cecelia, was from Myanmar and worked in a beauty parlour at Munirka. She was in a live-in relationship with the Nigerian national, the police said.

She hailed from Myanmar but was brought up in Manipur. She came to Delhi in 2005 with her husband, whom she divorced last year.

Police said after killing her the Nigerian bought a travel bag from INA market to dispose of the body.

Before coming to India, he worked in the Nigerian police force.

Chong alias Cecelia Burial

Mizo Opposition Party Youth

Aizawl, May 31 : The youth wings of three major opposition parties in Mizoram have set June 15 as the deadline for chief minister Lal Thanhawla to roll back the recent hike in sales tax imposed by the Congress government in the state.

On Monday, youth leaders of the Mizo National Front (MNF), the Mizoram People's Conference (MPC) and the Zoram Nationalist Party (ZNP) threatened to launch a united tirade against the state government if it did not meet their demand.

MNF youth wing president Lalruatkima said at Rs 64.70 a litre, people in Aizawl have to pay more for petrol than their counterparts in New Delhi.

"The price of petrol in Mizoram is second highest in the region, only next to Assam.

The common people of Mizoram will suffer a lot because the prices of essential commodities will go up in the wake of the rise in petroleum produc prices," he added.

The rates of local sales tax were hiked on petroleum products from May 20, a week after Indian Oil Corporation increased petrol price by Rs 5 a litre.

"While the Centre refrained from further hike in petroleum prices to avoid public wrath, it is extremely unfortunate that the state government increased the rates at alarming rates," Lalruatkima said.

On the other hand, the Mizoram Road Transport Union, an umbrella organization of vehicle owners and drivers, and the Zoram Taxi Drivers` Association also criticized the government for "steep rise" in local sales tax rates on petroleum products.

Mizoram Still Highest Consumer of Tobacco in India

Other Northeast states Nagaland and Tripura follow close behind

Mizoram a state couched in north-east India is no doubt permeated with the spirit of natural beauty but it is the same state where 60 per cent of people indulge in smoking. The strange thing that has been put under the light by the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) is that 22 per cent women of Mizoram indulge in smoking, compared to the meagre national level of 2.5 per cent, which is indeed startling.

This survey has also revealed the fact, that the ratio of women indulging in smoking have a higher death rate than the women who never smoked.

In the words of Nancy Malsawmtluangi:

I sell minimum 50 packs of cigarettes and 170 paans (betel leaves laved with tobacco) every day.

That can be one of the major reasons, why women of Mizoram are topping the cancer list of the country.

I think government will have to do a lot to check this trend and will have to try hard to make people aware of its implications.

Other News of Today of Mizo Smoking

Agartala, May 30 : Mizoram has emerged as the highest tobacco consuming state in the country followed by Nagaland and Tripura, Dr Goutam Majumder, Superintendent of Regional Cancer Centre said here today.

He said despite imposition of ban on smoking in public places, about 55.9 per cent of people in Tripura had been consuming tobacco (67.2 per cent in Mizoram and 56.8 per cent in Nagaland). According to statistics, while female tobacco users in the state was 48.1 per cent, 63.4 males used tobacco in Tripura.

''Females are found to be using smokeless tobacco than their male counterpart. Tobacco users of below 17 years are found highest in the state that counts for 29 per cent in a day,'' Dr Majumder said, adding that the tobacco using habit among minors had been on the rise.

Population based Cancer Registry Programme of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) shows occurrence of oesophagus, lung, mouth, nasopharynx and stomach cancer are relatively higher in Northeastern states as compared to other parts of the country.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has conducted a comprehensive study into the abnormal cancer growth in NE state during 2003-04, which revealed that Mizoram recorded the world's second highest cancer cases.

According to the report of the Development of Atlas of Cancer in India (DACI), Aizawl district has the highest Minimal Age Adjusted Incidence Rate (MAAIR) in India among women, followed by Serchhip district, which was also in Mizoram.

The study revealed, on an average about 40 people in a population of about a lakh suffer from stomach cancer in Northeast and this was only second to Japan's statistics after analysing the data of 105 hospitals spread over 82 districts across the country.

Oil Price Hike Fuels Anger in Mizoram

Aizawl, May 30 :The recent hike in petrol and other fuel products has fuelled public anger in Mizoram, with Opposition parties demanding the Congress government to revoke the increase in local sale taxes on oil not later by June 15.

Youth wings of the three Opposition parties -- Mizo National Front, Mizoram Peoples Party and Zoram Nationalist Party -- in a joint press conference on Saturday, lambasted the Congress government for increasing sales tax on petroleum products exorbitantly.

On Wednesday last, petrol became dearer in Mizoram than Delhi as the Mizoram government hiked prices of petroleum products and lubricants by raising local sales tax rates, a week after Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) increased petrol price by Rs 5 a litre.

One has to shell out Rs 64.70 and Rs 38.30 for a litre of petrol and diesel respectively in Aizawl and other parts of Mizoram while extra premium petrol costs Rs 67.20 a litre and extra premium diesel Rs 40.15 a litre. This resulted in a hike in sales tax, from 18 to 25 per cent on petrol, from 10 to 15 per cent on diesel and 2 to 4 per cent on cooking gas.

''Whereas the Centre has refrained from hiking petrol prices to prevent public anger, it is really unfortunate that the Mizoram Government has hiked fuel prices at extraordinary rates,'' Lalruatkima, president of MNF Youth said. ''The government has to impose or increase taxes from time to time taking into consideration the peoples ability to pay. The recent increase of taxes by the Congress government was exorbitant,'' Lalruatkima said.

The joint opposition wings also ridiculed a meeting of executive committee of the Mizoram Pradesh Congress Committee on May 25, which included Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla, that resolved to ask the government to make downward revision of the oil prices.

''This only shows that the Congress high command does not have trust in the Congress Cabinet. Also that the Cabinet does not look before it leaps,'' the MNF Youth leader said.

''Therefore, we demand the Congress government to roll back the fuel prices before June 15, as it is also the wish of the Congress party executive committee, chaired by Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla,'' he said.

Soon, Internet Connectivity For Every Indian Village

New Delhi, May 30 : Very soon, every village in the country will have an internet equipped service centre to ensure rural access to various online services like railway reservation and weather information for farmers.

The information technology department is working on a plan to have 2.5 lakh such centres across the country - one in every panchayat - by 2012.

While this is an extension of the original plan to have one lakh telecentres - one each at the block level - the department is banking on the recently unveiled National Broadband Policy to provide access to high speed connectivity.

Additional secretary, IT, Shankar Agarwal said, "The existing centres have internet facility but the speed is not very high, just about 256 kbps.

We are hoping that when the national broadband policy comes into force, this will increase to 2 mbps so that the service is more efficient and even video content can be sent.

We have about 6 lakh villages in the country, so the new target will mean that there will be one telecentre for every 2.5 villages."

At present, there are about 94,000 telecentres in the country, mostly at the block level. Each centre has a computer, a scanner, a printer and technical staff to help villagers with their work.

The idea, Agarwal said, is to have a cyber cafe like infrastructure in place for access of people in the rural areas. Private initiatives did not quite take off because of the uncertain nature of the business model which is when government decided to pitch in, he added.

While the department is confident of meeting the 2012 deadline for the panchayat level centres, upgrade of internet service is a very important aspect of the plan as without it the plan to use this in a big way for educational purposes may not be very successful. "Transfer of video content is essential to use the centres as distance learning hub," Agarwal said.

The speed increase as envisaged in the broadband policy would entail laying of fibre cables which could mean possible land issues. The cables would need to be laid and there could be opposition from panchayats or individual farm owners about the digging work that would be essential for this.

The 2 mbps internet speed plan in fact is a take-off from the government's own State Wide Area Network (SWAN) project which is in place for intra-government connectivity under which every block level government office in the country across 27 states is connected.

The states/UTs that are not a part of the initiative now include Goa, Andamans, Daman and Diu, Mizoram and Meghalaya. Jammu and Kashmir and Rajasthan started late but are now catching up.

Bengal Retain Santosh Trophy Title

Bengal beat Manipur 2-1 to retain Santosh Trophy

Players and officials of the Bengal football team jubilate after winning the 65th Santosh Trophy at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium in Guwahati. (PTI Photo)

Guwahati, May 30 : Bengal retained the Santosh Trophy with a 2-1 victory over Manipur in the summit clash to win their 31st title of the national championships on Monday.

Strikers Branco Cardozo (21st minute) and Budhiram Tudu (48th) scored for Bengal while Manipur pulled one back through Nabachandra Singh in the 75th minute at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium.

Manipur were playing in only their second final after winning the title in 2002.

Both the teams started on an aggressive note. While Manipur went all out for an early goal, Bengal preferred to play sensibly and gained in confidence as they played the waiting game.
Branco put Bengal ahead in the 21st minute. He blasted a Francis Fernandes pass from the top of the box as Bengal went into the interval with a one-goal lead.

After changing ends, Bengal doubled the lead in the 48th minute. Midfielder Budhiram Tudu found the back of the net when he tapped in from close.

With no other option left, Manipur went all out. And it paid dividends when Nabachandra Singh reduced the margin in the 75th minute. Inspired by the goal, Manipur launched a series of attacks to restore parity but it all came a bit too late.

Bengal now have won their second consecutive title after a lull of 11 years since emerging champions in 1999. In the last edition, Bengal had beaten Punjab 2-0 in the final to regain the trophy.

Bengal sports minister congratulates football team

KOLKATA: West Bengal sports minister Madan Mitra congratulated the state football team on winning the prestigious Santosh Trophy after defeating Manipur in the final in Guwahati.

"We are happy for the super performance of the Bangal soccer team who has restored the past glory of Bengal in football arena," Mitra said.

He said that the team would be accorded a reception at the Town Hall by the state sports department.

Mitra said that the state government would encourage sports in various disciplines.

Mile-High Flirting Goes Horribly Wrong

A US man who tried to flirt with a young woman on board a plane by bragging he was carrying enough poisonous gas to knock out the entire aircraft found himself arrested and banned for life from Delta Air Lines.

Bryan Sisco, 40, allegedly knocked back five whiskey-and-cokes at an airport bar in Dallas on Friday before boarding his Atlanta-bound plane, on which he took a wrong seat and found himself next to Danielle Valimont, 23, from Griffin, US, The Commercial Appeal reported.

When confronted by a flight attendant about being in the wrong seat, Sisco said he and Valimont were newlyweds.

The 40-year-old then whipped out a butane lighter, sparking it near Valimont's legs, and boasted that he had a canister that contained enough gas to knock out everyone on the plane.

In further attempt to impress her, Sisco also claimed he was an architect and a federal marshal, and his father was in the CIA, according to Valimont who wrote about the incident on her blog.

"He was very crass with his language and called me "B****" and "F*****" in a friendly, joking way - if that's possible"

The quick-thinking Valimont pretended she needed the bathroom and managed to alert a flight attendant.

The flight was diverted to Memphis, where a baffled Sisco, who had been sleeping and oblivious to the unfolding panic, was arrested by officers who boarded the plane.

"I fell asleep, and woke up in handcuffs in Memphis with the FBI questioning me. ... I couldn't even feel my thumb, the handcuffs were put on so tight," he said.

Sisco added that he was puzzled by the fuss which came about "because of that one comment".

"We were talking, sharing M&Ms, eating chocolate, having a good time," he said. "I fabricated some truths about myself. ... I thought we were getting along pretty good."

The flight continued on its way to Atlanta, while Sisco was released on a $10,000 bond. He faces charges of carrying a weapon or explosive on an aircraft.