8 children among 12 shot dead in Assam

Suspected Dimasa rebels gunned down 12 Naga villagers, including eight children and two women, in a broad daylight swoop on a Zeme Naga village in southern Assam’s North Cachar Hills district on Tuesday.

The heavily armed militants also set ablaze 18 houses in Michidui village, about 25 km from district headquarters Halflong. More than 10 villagers were critically wounded and shifted to the Halflong civil hospital.

The incident took place Tuesday afternoon when the entire state government machinery was enjoying a "grand celebration" organised to mark the completion of three years of the second term of Assam’s Gogoi government.

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Delhi, Jaipur, Vizag may be off Indian Premier League list

While the Indian Premier League awaits the green signal to the second edition of the Twenty20 event from the home ministry, reports emerged on Tuesday claiming that New Delhi, Jaipur and Visakhapatnam had been dropped as venues in the schedule.

The latest itinerary revision submitted to the home ministry on Tuesday has left out these three venues as the respective state governments could not guarantee security owing to the General Elections during that period, sources were quoted as saying.

The sources said the new schedule has taken into consideration the security constraints of all the state governments. The ministry confirmed on Tuesday that it had received the new schedule.

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Army may run Commonwealth Games

The armed forces may have a new civilian role to play to make the Commonwealth Games in 2010 a success. One section of the government believes that, given the tardy pace of creation of infrastructure for the Games, it is best to hand over the projects in the National Capital Region to the defence services.

This will be over and above their task of providing an air-land-water security blanket for the Games.

Home minister Shivraj Patil has proposed that the construction of major infrastructure projects, which have already suffered huge cost and time overruns, be handed over to the defence establishment.

A ministerial group on the Games, headed by human resources minister Arjun Singh, will take a view on the proposal at its next meeting in a fortnight. It is likely that the proposal will have the blessings of the Prime Minister's Office.

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