State facing famine after rat plague

India - A million people in northeastern India face famine after rats destroyed most of the rice crop in their state, the International Rice Research Institute has said.
The 2007 infestation spread over to the border areas of Bangladesh and Myanmar in early 2008, "increasing fears of widespread food shortages," the Philippines-based institute said.
It left the Indian state of Mizoram, home to about a million people, with just one-fifth of its monthly rice requirement.