The States of north-eastern India demand their share of the development pie. PTI Union Minister for the Development of the North-Eastern Region Mani Shankar Aiyar (centre) with Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar (third from left), his Mizoram counterpart Zoramthanga (right) and Manipur counterpart Okram Ibobi Singh (extreme right), along with other members of the NEC in Agartala on May 12, the day before the signing of the vision document.

Survivors of the cyclone which ravaged Myanmar last month will soon receive rice generated by the popular UN-backed Internet game that allows players to expand their word skills while helping to feed the world's hungry. FreeRice.com, in which 20 grains of rice are donated to the UN World Food Programme (WFP) every time a person answers a question correctly, has already generated over 36 billion grains of rice enough for more than 3.7 million meals. Two consignments of rice for Myanmar have been paid for by YUM! and Unilever, the latest companies to help fund the FreeRice initiative.

US warships laden with supplies for Myanmar's cyclone victims will sail away after the junta refused their help, even as aid workers on Wednesday pleaded for more help to reach about a million survivors. The US navy said they would withdraw the four ships

Myanmar must stop forcing cyclone survivors to return to their shattered homes where they face more misery or even death, rights groups said on Saturday, as a US official accused the junta of being "deaf and dumb" to foreign aid pleas. The former Burma's junta started evicting destitute families from government-run cyclone relief centres on Friday, apparently fearing the 'tented villages' might become permanent. "It's unconscionable for Burma's generals to force cyclone victims back to their devastated homes," Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

Indrani Bagchi | TNN New Delhi: India will repair Myanmar's famous Shwedagon Pagoda, or Golden Pagoda, which was damaged by cyclone Nargis on May 3. This offer was made during Sunday's pledging conference where around 52 countries promised rehabilitation and reconstruction aid to Myanmar.

Myanmar's government is forcing cyclone victims out of refugee camps and "dumping' them near their devastated villages with virtually no aid supplies, the U.N. said on Friday. Eight camps set up earlier by the government for homeless victims in the Irrawaddy Delta town of Bogale were "totally empty' as the clearout continued, UNICEF official Teh Tai Ring told a meeting of aid groups. "The government is moving people unannounced,' he said, adding that authorities were "dumping people in the approximate location of the villages, basically with nothing.'

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Yangon: Myanmar's ruling junta lashed out at foreign aid donors on Friday, saying cyclone victims did not need supplies of "chocolate bars' and could instead survive by eating frogs and fish. The New Light of Myanmar newspaper, a government mouthpiece, also warned foreign relief workers could snoop inside homes, and condemned donors for linking aid money to full access to the hardest-hit regions in the Irrawaddy delta.

Myanmar's military government appeared Friday to be reasserting its authority over cyclone relief operations as aid officials said it was forcing survivors out of refugee camps and hindering the access it had promised foreign aid workers. A U.N. official said the junta was making cyclone survivors leave government refugee camps and "dumping' them near their devastated villages with virtually no aid supplies.

More than 100,000 people, according to unofficial estimate, are feared dead after cyclone Nargis tore through Myanmar late May 2 night. Another 43,000 people were missing four days after the