Rebels using rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons have ambushed a military convoy in India’s insurgency-hit north east, killing at least 21 soldiers and wounding 14 others.

A crude bomb killed two people at a busy bus stop a day after another explosion injured five people in the same north-east Indian city.

The outer bands of Cyclone Mahasen struck the southern coast of Bangladesh today, lashing remote fishing villages with heavy rain and fierce winds and forcing the evacuation of more than a million people.

Four people died when a separatist rebel in north-east India opened fire at a police station where election voting was being held.

The death toll from a bomb explosion outside a police training centre in remote northeast India has risen to 17 after three more wounded succumbed to their injuries overnight, police said today.

Hundreds of children from a village in India’s insurgency-wracked northeast have burned their toy guns in a symbolic protest against the violence that surrounds them, activists said today.

Suspected insurgents ambushed a government vehicle and shot three paramilitary soldiers dead, along with one Election Commission official and their civilian driver in India’s troubled north east today, police said.

A grenade explosion and a subsequent stampede during a Hindu festival in north-eastern India left four people dead and 40 injured, including at least four foreigners.

A grenade blast in a Hare Krishna temple during a major Hindu religious festival killed four people in India’s northeast today, police said.

Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s ruling coalition said it was “confident” it would secure a majority in Parliament when final election results are counted tomorrow, though exit polls indicated a hung legislature was likely.

MILITANTS struck polling sites with grenades, rifles and bombs yesterday as Indians from Goan beaches to Himalayan mountains voted in a crucial third round of elections that will decide the fate of opposition leader Sonia Gandhi and her son, first-time candidate Rahul.

An intense gun battle between two militant groups left 11 people dead in India’s remote northeastern state of Manipur, police said.

Suspected separatist rebels blew up a bridge in north-east India today, killing six people who were travelling on a bus, police said.

Separatist rebels in a northeastern Indian state shot and injured at least 10 people who they suspected of helping university students cheat on final exams, police said today.