India's Maoists have spread north-east, gaining a foothold in the strategically located states bordering China and Burma, officials and analysts say. The Maoists are filling the void created by dwindling ethnic insurgent groups like the Ulfa, an Institute for Conflict Management (ICM) report says. One key Assam official told the BBC that boys thought to have gone south for jobs had instead joined the rebels. The Maoists have become squeezed in their traditional...

A body, with AK-47 and hearing aid beside, found in West Bengal Communist Party of India (Maoist) Polit Bureau member Koteshwara Rao alias Kishenji, who has been spearheading Maoist operations in West Bengal's Jangalmahal region, is suspected to have been killed in an encounter in the Burisole forest area in Paschim Medinipur district on Thursday. “A body was found with an AK-47 and a hearing aid beside. We suspect that the AK-47...

-The Hindu   The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Thursday refuted the “specious explanations” on inflation given by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee saying his statement hid the government's failure to check price rise. Reacting to his November 22 suo motu statement in Parliament, the CPI(M) Polit Bureau said: “It is nothing but an exercise in deception to conceal the utter failure of the UPA government in checking the relentless price rise.” While referring...

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Tuesday charged the United Progressive Alliance government with attempting to “tinker with” the parliamentary system to suit the United States and its companies by “diluting” the rules of the Nuclear Liability Act. Referring to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's statement that the rules framed for the Act would sit in Parliament for 30 days, CPI(M) Rajya Sabha leader Sitaram Yechury said so far the Committee...

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has promptly responded to the letter in which the State-appointed interlocutors for talks with Maoists have sought to be relieved of their responsibilities. She has called a meeting with the interlocutors on Saturday. But that does not clear away the clouds gathering over the peace process. While both the government and the Maoists insist that it is in their mutual interest to sit at the...