5th May 2014

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Dimapur VOL. IX ISSUE 121

The Morung Express “

www.morungexpress.com

Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself

EC failed to stop rigging, violence: Modi

Priyanka Chopra’s ex-flame set to direct a film on her

[ PAGE 8]

reflections

By Sandemo Ngullie

“Constructing a drain?

Good, Don`t forget to clog it in advance.”

Carbon dioxide levels hit record high in April New YORk, MAY 4 (IANS): In an alarming revelation, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere for the first time topped 400 parts per million for a month, according to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at University of California - San Diego. Researchers at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) showed that CO2 exceeded 400 parts per million in two months earlier this year than last year. Every day of this April averaged more than 400 parts per million. This could be the first time in 800,000 years that the earth’s atmosphere contained this much CO2. “We continue to turn the dial up on this ‘electric blanket’ of ours without knowing what the resulting temperatures will be,” said James Butler, director of the Global Monitoring Division of NOAA.

Let your infant sleep on back

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TORONTO, MAY 4 (IANS): Do not forget to place your sleeping baby on his/her back as supine sleeping can reduce the risk of of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Rates of supine sleeping (being placed on the back for sleep) are as low as 50 percent in some states in the US, a research said. While only about two-thirds of term infants are placed on their backs to sleep, the rate is even lower among premature infants. “Given that supine sleep positioning significantly reduces an infant’s risk for SIDS, it is worrisome that only twothirds of full-term infants born in the US are being placed back-to-sleep,” said Sunah Hwang, an instructor in pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, the US. More concerning is that adherence to safe sleep positioning is even lower for premature infants who are at even greater risk for SIDS compared to term infants, Hwang said. SIDS is the leading cause of death among infants between one month and one year of age.

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Monday, May 5, 2014 12 pages Rs. 4 –John Dewey

Sainik School Punglwa celebrates 7th Annual Day [ PAGE 2]

Marc wins Spanish Grand Prix

[ PAGE 9]

[ PAGE 12]

Violence escalates in Ukraine, dozens killed

[ PAGE 11]

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Passenger train goes assam: police kill off rail in Maharashtra 3 suspected rebels RAIGAD, MAY 4 (PTI): At least seventeen people were killed and 120 injured when the engine and four bogies of a passenger train derailed on Konkan Railway route in Maharashtra’s Raigad district on Sunday.

The accident occurred just outside a tunnel near Nidi village when the engine and four out of the 20 bogies of Diwa-Sawantwadi passenger train derailed at around 10 AM between Nagothane and Roha railway stations, about 120 kms from Mumbai.

According to Raigad police control room, 17 passengers were killed and around 120 injured in the mishap which occurred in a remote area. However, a Railway spokesman in New Delhi put the number of those killed at 13.

The death toll rose as more bodies and injured persons were found trapped when the overturned bogies were being removed, a police official said. Rescue operations were underway, police said. Eleven bodies were sent to Nagothane primary health centre for postmortem, while six were taken to government hospital at Roha, the police control room said.

Most of the injured were being treated at Roha gov-

People gather around a passenger train that derailed near Roha station, 110 kilometers (70 miles) south of Mumbai, Maharashtra state, India, Sunday, May 4. The cause of the accident was not immediately known. (AP Photo)

ernment hospital and the rest at Nagothane primary health centre. Following the mishap, services on Konkan Railway route were suspended. According to railway authorities, some trains were diverted via Panvel-Lonavala-PuneMiraj-Londa-Madgaon and a few cancelled.

The Railways ordered an inquiry and Railway Minister Mallikarjun Kharge announced an ex-gratia of Rs two lakh for the next of the kin those killed in the acci-

aid rushed to survivors of afghan landslide kAbUl, MAY 4 (PTI): Aid groups today rushed to help survivors of a landslide in northern Afghanistan that entombed a village, killing hundreds of people and leaving 700 families homeless. Much of Aab Bareek village in Badakhshan province was swallowed by a fast-moving tide of mud and rock that left almost no trace of 300 homes.

Government officials said the current death toll was at least 300 and warned it could rise by hundreds more, after initial reports suggested that as many as 2,500 people may have died. Large crowds gathered at the remote disaster site, where rescue efforts were abandoned due to the

volume of deep mud covering houses.

“Around 1,000 families are thought to have been affected with some 300 houses totally destroyed,” the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.

“Assessments to determine priorities on immediate child protection and water, sanitation, and hygiene needs for (displaced) families are continuing.”

700 families were displaced, with many fleeing their homes in fear of more landslides. Tents, emergency food supplies, health services and support for children who lost parents were being organised after many survivors spent another night in the open.

dent, Rs 50,000 for the grievously hurt and Rs 10,000 for passengers who suffered minor injuries.

The Railways also started two helpline– Thane — 022-25334840 and Panwel–022-27468. The helpline numbers on which passengers can contact Konkan Railway are 02352-228176 / 228951 / 228954, and 02227561721/3/4.

For the convenience of passengers, Konkan Railway has arranged for state transport buses from Konk-

an region to be diverted via various Konkan Railway stations on the way to Mumbai. Those passengers, who have a valid train ticket for the cancelled / diverted/ short terminated trains, can travel by these buses towards Mumbai. Passengers are not required to pay anything for the bus journey, railway authorities said. Refund is being paid by Konkan Railway at its various stations for those passengers who would like to cancel their journey, they said.

GUwAhATI, MAY 4 (AGeNCIeS): Police said Sunday they killed three suspected rebels and arrested eight forest guards for alleged involvement in the killings of 31 Muslims in Assam.

In dense forest near Tejpur, four suspected insurgents hurled a grenade and fired at policemen who ambushed them, said police officer Sanjukta Prashar.

Police killed two in an exchange of gunfire and two suspects escaped, she said.

The town is nearly 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of the region where Muslims were attacked on Thursday and Friday.

In Udalguri district, police killed a third suspect in an exchange of gunfire and recovered one revolver and one hand grenade from him, said regional police inspector general L.R. Bishnoi. He said police suspect two who fled were on their way to attack a village with a mostly Muslim population.

Police also recovered two bodies floating in a river in Barapeta area, Bishnoi said, raising the death toll in last week’s violence to 31.

Police said they have arrested eight forest guards following complaints by the victims’ relatives that they were involved in the brutal killings. The 22 people arrested earlier face

charges they either burned homes or provided shelter to insurgents.

On Sunday, army soldiers patrolled the curfewbound districts of Baska and Kokrajhar for a second day to defuse tension.

Relatives, who earlier refused to bury 18 victims in Baska unless Assam state’s top elected official visited them, relented and performed the last rites after state Planning Minister Prithvi Majhi met them and assured security to thousands of people hit by the violence. The wrapped bodies had remained on the road for two days. Authorities have said the attackers belonged to a faction (Songbhijit) of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB- S), which has been fighting for a separate homeland for the ethnic Bodo people for decades. The rebel group denies it. The NDFB (S), in an audio message to a section of media, alleged a third party role behind the killings. The outfit blamed the role of the government for failing to ensure safety and security of the people in the BTAD areas.

NDFB secretary, information and publicity wing, N.E. Esara, while denying the outfit’s role in the killings, told the media that it was a political conspiracy hatched by the As-

sam government to trigger a confrontation between two victimised (Bodo and Muslim) communities for political gain and to divert attention from the rape and murder of Daya Basumatary, 17, by eight youths at Boldi in Chirang district on March 29.

Rights group Amnesty International India said in a statement that authorities in Assam state must take action to protect the rights of all communities and bring those responsible for the attacks to justice. The Assam Human Rights Commission has also registered a suo moto case related to the violence; it said it would also issue a notice to the state government seeking an inquiry into the killings that started on Thursday night.

Violence between Bodo people and Muslims in 2012 killed as many as 100 people in the same area as the recent attacks.

Tensions have been high in the region since a Bodo lawmaker in India’s Parliament criticized Muslims for not voting for the Bodo candidate, said Lafikul Islam Ahmed, leader of a Muslim youth organization called the All Bodoland Muslim Students’ Union.

The country’s multiphase general election concludes May 12, with results for Parliament’s lower house announced on May 16.

PWD (R&B) responds to NFHRCC DIMAPUR, MAY 4 (MexN): The Nagaland PWD (R&B) department has stated that the Nagaland Foothill Road Construction Committee’s appeal “to withhold the work order of certain sectors or contractors not receiving work orders does not arise.”

This was stated in a press note from the Chief Engineer for PWD (R&B), in reply to the NFHRCC’s earlier statement, which had appealed against the issuing of work order for the Mon sector of the Foothill Road project.

The department, while acknowledging the NFHRCC’s efforts, stated that it has been entrusted by the government to oversee and monitor the progress of the said works and

Konyak Union expresses ‘displeasure’

MON, MAY 4 (MexN): The Konyak Union (KU) has expressed “total displeasure” at the NFHRCC for “withholding Mon Sector road works order under the Foothills road construction.”

A press note from the KU President and General Secretary questioned: “on what ground the work order for Mon sector had been withheld?”

The KU claimed that the NFHRCC “is going out of the track, which may invite many other problems.” It further queried “why and how the that it “is putting in all efforts to see that the works are carried out without delay in all sectors of the road.” It added that in order to provide connectivity in stretches where new road cutting is required; the department is in the process

NFHRCC is dictating the PWD Department and as well the Government of Nagaland?” “If the Committee (NFHRCC) is adopting such dictatorship culture with the department and the Government of Nagaland, then what is the power and function or the legal obligation of the department concerned?” it added.

The union asserted that the “PWD and the Government of Nagaland should exercise their fundamental duties as a legal department and that the

of carrying out the formalities to finalize the work orders, which were not covered by the first phase of the work orders already issued.

With regard to the attendance of the meeting called by the NFHRCC, the PWD (R&B) clarified that

work order for Foothills road construction under Mon sector be immediately approved and issued to the qualified contractor for implementation.” It further cautioned that the union “will not tolerate any forum that tries to undermine the desire of the apex Union.”

Calling upon the department concerned to determine their legal duties for immediate completion of the road construction, the KU assured that it would “fully co-operate with the department and its contractor.”

it “has not authorized the officers to attend the meeting and any report or views shared by them is of their own and not the official report/view of the department.”

It assured that the PWD (R&B) will be verifying/in-

specting the works as required, and informed all contractors or any organizations interested in the ongoing project to conduct spot verification along with the departmental officers, as per the convenience of the department.

3 accused minors were brutal in attack: CBI

New DelhI, MAY 4 (IANS): In the attack on 19-year-old Arunachal Pradesh student Nido Tania here in January, which caused his death, three juveniles were most “brutal” along with the main accused Farman, the CBI has said in its charge sheet.

The charge sheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Pritam Singh has named seven people, including three minors, for culpable homicide not amounting to murder of Tania.

The charges also include wrongful confinement, common intent, and violation of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act by passing racist remarks against the youngster.

The CBI charge sheet - which has been accessed by IANS - has laid the major blame for Nido’s killing on four accused - Farman and three boys under the age of 18. They were present when Nido with his companion entered a paneer shop in south Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar market to inquire about an address on Jan 29.

According to the CBI, Nido’s friend

Lokam Lulu in his statement told the agency that “none of them replied to his query, instead they started laughing, specially looking at the hair colour of Nido because it had been dyed golden brown”.

They also made some insulting “racist remarks” about Nido, the CBI said, citing Lokam Lulu.

Nido told Farman that a friend of his required emergency medical assistance and they had to reach the address immediately to attend to him. However, the accused continued to laugh and mock Nido and his friend Lokam Lulu.

In frustration, Nido banged the glass counter of the paneer shop with his right fist, thereby breaking the glass of the showcase.

“Thereafter the accused, namely, Farman and R, F and S (juveniles in conflict with the law, who cannot be named for legal reasons) rushed out of the shop in furtherance of a common intention to overawe the deceased Nido Tania with criminal force. R and F (two minors) forcefully caught Nido Tania from behind and whilst accused Farman start-

ed hitting Nido Tania on his hands and feet,” said CBI in charge sheet.

Lulu said in his statement, which is part of the charge sheet, that when he made efforts to save Nido, the two minors pushed him back and “they also beat Nido with punches”.

Lulu, who is a prosecution witness and complainant in the case, has stated that “Farman started hitting on his (Nido’s) head from the front with a wooden

report and the report of the medical board have opined that the cause of Nido’s death was cerebro-pulmonary edema and its complications as a consequence of blunt trauma to head, face and lungs. The CBI, however, has dropped murder charges against the attackers on the ground that his killing was not premeditated but a result of altercation over breaking the glass counter.

Nido died in a hospital Jan 30, a day after being beaten up by several shopkeepers in south Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar area following an argument over his appearance and clothing. After a detailed investigation, the CBI concluded that seven people -- namely Farhan, Pawan, Sundar and Sunny Uppal and three juveniles -- were involved in the assault on Tania that led to his death.

The four adults - Farman, Pawan, Sunder and Sunny Uppal - will be tried by the court while proceedings against the three juveniles will be carried out by the Juvenile Justice Board.

The case was transferred to the CBI from Delhi Police for further investi-

nido tania case stick while minors hit him with hands and feet”. Nido sustained injuries on his head and face. There were cut marks on his both fists also and blood was oozing out of his right fist.

Subsequently, three local neighbours of Farman, namely Pawan, Sunder and Sunny Uppal also joined Farman in furtherance of the common intention of overawing Nido with criminal force by raining blows on Nido Tania whilst uttering derogatory racist remarks, the charge sheet said.

The post-mortem examination

gation after the victim’s parents met Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde and Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, demanding speedy justice.

The maximum punishment for culpable homicide is 10 years in jail, under which the CBI charged the seven accused. In accordance with the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, the three accused below the age of 18 at the time of the crime are to be treated as juveniles in conflict with the law.

Even if convicted for crime by a juvenile court, these accused can be punished with only a maximum term of three years in a special home, irrespective of the crime.

Recently, many cases have come to light where juveniles were involved in most brutal crimes like rape and murder. In the Dec 16 Delhi gang rape, one of the six accused was a juvenile and was sent to special home for three years after being convicted on charges of committing rape and murder.

Two juveniles are also accused in the Shakti Mills gang rape case in Mumbai, where a photo journalist and a telephone operator were gang raped.

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NTC condemns killing in Nagaland-Assam border

Keeping up traditional practice of gate pulling: People of Kikrüma and other villages came together at Kikruma village to participate in the traditional gate pulling ceremony on May 2. (L) Menfolk pulled the gate, while (R) womenfolk took care of the refreshment. Kikrüma is in Phek district and around 50 km away from the state capital Kohima. (Morung Photos/Chizokho Vero)

Sainik School Punglwa celebrates 7th Annual Day

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Dimapur, may 4 (mExN): Sainik School Punglwa celebrated its 7th Annual Day on May 3. The function was graced by Brig DS Shishodia, Commander, 44 Mountain Brigade, as the chief guest. Old Boys Association (OBA) of Nagaland, dignitaries, parents and village elders joined the celebration. The cultural potpourri, presented by the cadets was the main attraction of the day, stated a press release received here.

The chief guest expressed his delight to be back in a Sainik School and expressed confidence that SSPN will soon produce great officers in the Defence Forces. He stated that Sainik School is the only school where friends of lifetime are made and assured the parents of the cadets that they have made the right decision in sending their children to Sainik School. The chief guest gave away the Best

Sportsmanship Award to Cdt Tanthuilubo of Doyang House, Cultural Trophy to Saramati House & Tizu House, Academic Trophy to Saramati House and the Cock House Trophy for the year 2013-2014 to Patkai House.

The Officiating Principal Lt Col Sumeet Sharma, in his Annual Report asserted that the school is in its threshold of delivering what it owes to the society. He dwelt upon the efforts taken by the school administration to promote academic excellence such as the introduction of bronze, silver and gold torch for those cadets who excel in academics. He also mentioned that the school has taken initiative in conducting math capsule classes, orientation programme for the staff etc.

He also remembered with gratitude the efforts taken by the OBA under the leadership of the Chief Minister Neiphieu Rio in raising the (L-R) Chief Guest Brig. DS Shishodia and his wife along with Lt. Col Sumeet Sharma, Officiating Principal, Sainik School, school.

Punglwa and Lt. Col. Narendra Dogra during the 7th Annual Day of Sainik School Punglwa on May 3. (Morung Photo)

SKK joint meeting on May 8 Dimapur, may 4 (mExN): The All Sumi Students' Union (SKK) has scheduled a joint meeting of Platinum Jubilee Planning Board, Committee on Local Arrangement, and its executives on May 8 at SKK office building, Zunheboto at 11:00 am. Therefore, all the members concerned have been notified to attend the meeting positively.

Nagamese NT translation committee meet

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Dimapur, may 4 (mExN): The first meeting of Nagamese New Testament (NT) translation committee was held on MLA Mmhonlumo Kikon addressing the Moatsu festival celebration in Wokha on May 2. Also seen are DC Wokha, Vysan R (IAS) May 2 at NBCA Convenand SP Wokha, Limasunep Jamir (IPS) and others. The programme was organized by Wokha Aor Telongjem. (Morung Photo) tion Hall, Dimapur. The meeting was attended by representatives from all denominations, informed a press release.

Rev. Dr. Chen Rengma, Executive Secretary, NBCA, in the meeting said that the aim of the committee was to translate the New Testament into Nagamese in a joint venture. With endorsement from NBCC, the project was made possible, he stated.

Rev. Dr. W. Along Jamir, Associate Translations Director, Bible Society of India, Shillong, also shared about the Bible Society of India’s system and pattern Liquid Nitrogen Plant-II commissioned by parliamentary secretary for veterinary & animal husbandry Yitachu at Dairy Farm of translation and its imComplex, Lerie, Kohima recently. The Liquid Nitrogen Plant, which has 21 LPH capacity was implemented by the Nagaland portance. He said NBCA is Livestock Development Board (NLDB) and installed at a cost of more than Rs. 3.00 crores. the proper channel to start this project with all the denomination. He added that language identifies our cul-

17 students graduate from CFTNB college

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Graduating students of Christ For The Nations Bible College, Kohima on April 30.

Ko h i m a , m ay 4 Kohima was held on April (mExN): The 31st gradua- 30 at the college administion ceremony of Christ for trative building.

Dr. Kenny Tsela, Pastor, the Nations Bible College,

Rengma Baptist Church, Kohima was the guest speaker, and Dr. Imotemsu, Senior Specialist, Naga Hos-

pital Kohima was the guest of honour. Toshi Imchen, Ao NCRC Kohima prayed for the 5 Master of Divinity graduates and 12 Bachelor of Theology graduates.

All together, 17 students graduated. Ango was awarded the Late Rev. Vitokhu’s Award which is given to the most industrious and prayerful student, SC Nian Sai was awarded for securing highest score in the New Testament Department, P. Themshao was awarded the best preaching award, Sabalu was awarded the overall highest score among the Bachelor of Theology graduates, T. Chongkhem Khiamniungan was awarded the most sincerity award, Sei Lian was awarded the most perfect working attendance award, and Akhriebou received the most proficient award among the extension students.

ture and life.

According to the note, the committee members resolved to have only one translator and a translation committee but the final approval should come from the translation committee. The members also resolved that the translator be instructed to call for the translation committee review meeting in 2 months.

The translator should report to the translation centre Shillong by second week of June. The committee members also resolved to entrust NBCA general secretary to organise the consultation on Nagamese language in consultation with NBCC. The meeting agreed to appoint the following members into the translation committee: Translator – Toshi Jamir; Translation Committee – Khosa Angami, Sam Kumar, Kashito, H.Lemei Phom, Asangla Zumtu, Rev.Dr.Chen.

Rengma, J.S Rengma, Baulei Phom

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Dimapur, may 4 (mExN): The Nagaland Tribes Council (NTC) has strongly condemned the “brutal killing” of Supongtemjen Imchen on April 30 in the Nagaland-Assam border area near Indisen Village.

Accusing the Assam police of the killing, NTC in a press statement said, “Assam Police always treats the Nagas as foreign to them, and all their actions towards the Nagas are high handedness and without any sense, which cannot be tolerated any longer. It is high time now the concerned authorities initiate measures for protection of its citizens living in their rightful land.” The NTC further expressed its sadness at the unfortunate killing and conveyed deepest condolence to the bereaved family and prayed to God to grant them courage to withstand in this time of grief and sorrow. The statement was issued by NTC acting president Lendinoktang Ao and its general secretary Nribemo Ngullie.

Boy falls off Dhansiri Bridge and dies Dimapur, may 4 (mExN): The Dimapur police investigating the case of the death of a minor boy, whose lifeless body was found on the bank of Dhansiri River, below old Dhansiri Bridge on April 30, has established that the victim met with an unfortunate accident leading to his death. Informing this in a press release, Additional Superintendent of Police/ PRO, Dimapur informed that the victim identified as Tsalise Sangtam (14), S/o Yotingchum Sangtam of Kiphire village, and a resident of Full Nagarjan, Dimapur met with the unfortunate and fatal accident when he was returning from Purana Bazar after collecting re-filled LPG cylinder in a cycle. On reaching the bridge, according to eyewitness account, the release said, the victim lost control of the cycle he was riding and fell from the bridge seriously sustaining injury on his head from the boulders in the riverbank. The victim was rushed to District Hospital Dimapur where he succumbed to his injuries, the note informed, adding, the body was handed over to relatives after observing all legal formalities.

Director of Sainik Welfare informs Kohima, may 4 (mExN): Director of Sainik Welfare & Resettlement Nagaland has asked the candidates from Nagaland willing to appear for the Army recruitment rally at Leimakhong from May 15 - 25 to visit the Directorate of Sainik Welfare, above Alder College HS Road Kohima. The director informed that guidance and free coaching would be conducted from May 5-7 at the Directorate.

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Free career & admission counseling in Kohima Dimapur, may 4 (mExN): India Northeast Tribal Community Welfare Society (INTCWS), Notun Basti, Dimapur, under the aegis of its education wing Libra Consultancy is organizing its annual free career guidance and admission counseling at the office of the Angami Students’ Union, Kohima, near All India Radio on May 7 from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm for different courses like medical, nursing, engineering, B.Sc agriculture, forestry, PG, degree, LLB, Class 11 etc. A press release from INTCWS chairman, Atsei Sekhose informed that it will also provide counseling for failed and drop-out students in relevant courses/ trainings etc. The free counseling will facilitate students to select the top recognized universities/ colleges across India and avail admissions at college rates and also help them gather information about their career options depending on their interest, aptitudes, and skills, it added. The counseling is conducted annually and many students have benefited through it, stated the note. Interested students and parents from Kohima and other districts have been requested to bring photo copy documents to avail the free service. For any query, one can contact 9862370317.

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GPRN/NSCN MIP clarifies Dimapur, may 4 (mExN): Apropos Assam Rifles’ press release on apprehension of Angami region’s chairman of the GPRN/NSCN on April 29, the MIP Kilonser of the faction has clarified that the “Angami region RAO was intercepted near 7th Mile Dimapur with arms and implicated with wrong story by 29 Assam Rifles.” The GPRN/NSCN MIP Kilonser N. Metha stated that the “Angami region RAO being a peace loving leader himself was on his way to the designated camp to deposit region’s arms on the day of his arrest by 29 Assam Rifles.” The MIP Kilonser mentioned that the actual number of “government arms” seized from the RAO’s possession was 4 “but in order to get noticed and flatter themselves the 29 Assam Rifles increased the numbers of seized arms to 5.” The MIP Kilonser further asked “the Indian state agency to release the seized arms held captive with them as it belonged to the government.”

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Assam violence: Manmohan Singh takes stock of situation Guwahati, May 4 (DNa): With 32 people being killed in Assam, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh took stock of situation on Sunday morning, directing Cabinet Secretary Ajit Kumar to continuously monitor the situation. Singh, who is also Rajya Sabha MP from Assam had summoned top security officials, including the National Security Advisor (NSA) Shiv Shankar Menon to find ways to prevent escalation of violence, and in view that tensions were building up in Kokrajhar and Baksa districts since April 24, when the state went to polls. The meeting was told that 43 companies of central armed police forces

and 10 more companies are being sent.

Further 15 columns of the army comprising of approximately 1500 soldiers have also been deployed in the region.

The government sources here said that tensions had escalated between former ULFA commanders Heera Saraniya contesting against a Bodo candidate Chandan Brahma from Kokrajhar Lok Sabha seat.

The former militant leader had backing of the Sanmilita Janagostiya Aikkyamancha (SJA), an amalgamation of at least 20 ethnic and linguistic groups.

The situation was further vitiated when on April 30, Pramila Rani Brahma,

Minister for Agriculture in Assam pointed out that Muslims in the region have voted for Saraniya and not for the Bodo candidate.

Addressing a press conference here, president of Assam Sangkhyalaghu (minorities) Sangram Parishad Naziruddin Ahmed alleged that taking que form the minister’s statement, on May 1, some 8 armed Bodo youth riding on 4 bicycles entered a house in Narasinghbari village in Baksa Dist and enquired whom they had voted for. But before getting any answer they fired shots and killed 3 persons and injured two.

At 12.30 a.m. on 2nd May (night of 1st May) in Balapara village part I, 20

armed militants entered and fired indiscriminately on 5 houses and killed 8 people which include 3 women, two old persons and 3 children (aged: 3, 8 and 12 years), who had obviously not even voted.

Assam Minister of state for Border Areas Development Siddique Ahmed has claimed that extremist elements in Bodoland People's Front (BPF), an alliance partner of Tarun Gogoi-led Congress government, are involved in the recent violence in Bodoland Territorial Autonomous Districts (BTAD).

About 40 surrendered youth of Bodo Liberation Tigers (now BPF) have been given arms (303 ri-

fles) to defend themselves party which is part of the Go- to weaken the Muslim com- grants to prevent their emeragainst NDFB militants goi government of the state. munity by way of dubbing gence as a political force in and camped in Basbari “It is a political conspiracy them illegal Bangladeshi mi- the state”, he said.

Range Forest office.

Naziruding alleged that Bodo constitute only 26 per cent in the BTAD areas. They are demanding even larger territory. The militant elements have been attacking the Rajkochbanshis, Oraons and other adivasis and nonDIMAPUR: NAGALAND Bodos in the past forcing Near D.C’s Office Complex, Dimapur their migration, in order to claim territory and turn their numbers into majority.

ADMISSION NOTICE President of All India Muslim Majlis Mushawarat, Admission for Class-11 (Arts) Stream started for the academic session 2014an umbrella body of all Mus2015. The school provides good HOSTEL facilities for both BOYS and GIRLS. lim social, cultural and reliAdmission will be given according to first come first serve on merit basis. gious groups Dr. Zafarul IsFor more details, please contact no. 03862-248963(off) 248456(off) during lam Khan said Muslims are office hours between 8.A.M. to 1.P.M. being made scapegoat for Administrator opposing the Bodo People’s

ST.STEPHEN’S HIGHER SECONDARY SCHOOL

Manipur hospitals using ‘NE India's development will help Bangladesh’ contaminated water iMphal, May 4 (thE hiNDu): Usage of contaminated water in Manipur’s public and private hospitals has sparked concern among people.

Disturbing photographs showing private water suppliers’ — on whom these hospitals depend for water requirements — tankers refilling from dirty public drains have appeared in local newspapers.

Sources said the main water pipe meant for Imphal’s Regional Institute of Medical Sciences — which is under the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare — had dried up decades ago since local residents made numerous holes in it to illegally tap water. Villagers near major rivers are not permitting private water suppliers to use them fearing water shortage. As a result, these suppliers are delivering contaminated drain water at a high price.

Sometimes, surgeries in these hospitals had been put off due to the unavailability of contaminated raw water. Fearing infection and other deadly diseases, some patients had asked hospital authorities to allow them to buy bottled

water, which was turned down by the latter.

In Manipur, all water supply schemes had been closed down some months back due to the lack of water sources. The Public Health Engineering Department had failed to translate into action the ambitious plan to distribute lake water to people.

Showers in Manipur in the past few days have perhaps come as a silver lining. However, these are too sporadic to be of any relief to the people.

Dhaka, May 4 (iaNS): Bangladesh's Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali said development of India's northeastern region would also benefit his country.

"It will ultimately be a win-win situation for all of us," Ali told a seminar in Dhaka Saturday on the country's Liberation War in 1971 and the relations with northeastern Indian states.

The minister recalled the contribution of India's northeastern states to the cause of Bangladesh's liberation in 1971 when he said "millions of our people took refuge in Tri-

pura, Meghalaya and Assam besides West Bengal", bdnews24.com reported.

He said a lot of development took place after the Independence and "we are playing an important role in this region's economic development, peace and stability".

Ali cited Bangladesh's steps on establishing more rail and road connectivity with the India's northeastern states and said the region comes as "an important link of connectivity" in Bangladesh's plan to be bridge between South Asia and Southeast Asia and beyond".

JUBILEE MEMORIAL SCHOOL

(Affiliated to CISCE for ICSE(K) & ISC(XII) Exams, New Delhi) Salangtem Ward, Mokokchung, Nagaland

The proposed BCIM (Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar) economic corridor will pass through northeast India after originating in Kolkata and passing through Bangladesh before it enters Myanmar and finally China's Yunnan province.

This regional corridor, it is felt, would be a gamechanger for the economy of all four countries.

Mahmood Ali said Bangladesh has already requested India to allow opening a Deputy High Commission in Guwahati and upgrade its Agartala Visa office to an Assistant High Commission to increase diplomatic and commercial presence in the northeast.

He said there would be direct air link between Dhaka and Guwahati soon.

ADMISSION NOTICE

ADMISSIONS OPEN

Correspondence Programme Offered

Doctor in Ministry (MIU) Master of Ministry (MIU) Bachelor of Ministry (MIU) Master of Theology (ATA) 1. Mission; 2. Ministry; 3. Religion There will be 3 days seminar with Rev. Dr. Stephen Tee, Director MIU, from 9 to 11 May 2014. Register at the earliest.

EBC alumni are also invited to attend this seminar.

For detail information contact: Principal P. O. Box 29, Bank Colony, Nagaland; Mobile: 9436003024, 9615554970

HS (+2) / PUC

3 years

Bachelor of Theology

HSLC

4 years

Certificate in Theology

HSLC

3 years

Graduate in Theology

Under Matriculate

4 years

• • •

Limited Seats for New Admission to the Autumn 2014 is still available.

New Admissions will be given on first cum first basis.

The College will reopen on 10th July, 2014.

For more information contact: Principal Vice-Principal (M)- 9436011961 (M)-8575733192

ADMISSION FOR CL-XI – ARTS & COMMERCE (For Girls Only) Starts from 5th May till 14th May 2014, Timing 10:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Class Commences from 15th May 2014 onwards Class Timing: 9:50 to 2:55

Experience Faculty for Commerce & Arts ARTS STREAM: English, Alt. Eng/MIL, Economics, History, Pol. Sci., Education, Sociology, Infor.Practices/ Computer Science.

COMMERCE STREAM: English, Alt. Eng/MIL, Accountancy, Business Studies, Economic, Fundamentals of Business Mathematics, Informatic Practices/Computer Science, Maths, Entrepreneurship.

Hostel & Bus Facilities available, but Limited.

Sd/- Principal

Educational & Career Counseling Fair

KOHIMA SUMI OFFICERS KÜQHAKULU BAGHI HOHO 2014.

Inviting all Parents, Teachers & Students Good news for students aspiring to study outside the State.

Professionals from reputed institutions from all over India are here in our city & will be interacting directly with you. *Highlights 1. Excellence infrastructure, excellence in academics 2. Career Guidance & Counseling Spot admission for: Architecture, MBBS, Engineering, BBA/MBA, B.Ed, Polytechnic, Comp.

Science, M. Pharm., UG/PG Course, Aviation, IAS coaching institutes etc.

VENUE: URBAN HAAT NEAR DHANSIRI BRIDGE WALFORD DIMAPUR

DATE: 9TH & 10TH May 2014 TIME: 9:00 AM TO 4:00 PM

*For any queries contact: Professional Enterprises 2 1/2 Mile, Near DPS, Dimapur #9774170041/9612850056 Email: professional.enterprises77@gmail.com

International Theological College & Seminary DIMAPUR: NAGALAND

PheKmi Collegiate Forum (PCF) FeteS ~Congratulation~ The Phekmi Collegiate Forum (PCF) extends its heartfelt congratulation to all its members who have successfully cleared the recently declared HSLC & HSSLC exams. While congratulating all the successful members, the forum encourages all its members who have failed to clear the exam to take their failure as an eye opener and work judiciously in the days to come.

The forum also extends its congratulation to Niechochiyi Seyie on his promotion to the post of District & Session Judge, Mokokchung. Your elevation to the post of District & Session Judge is a pride for all forum members. The forum while praying for your long life is confident you will continue to work in a just manner and bring more laurels to the PCF family.

Sd/- (Kuveduyi Venuh) Sd/- (Kuveluta Soho) President PCF Gen Secy PCF

Duration 2 years

Total Appeared 107 & Qualified 106 1st Div. – 80 Students; 2nd Div. – 26 Students 74 Students got more than 70 Marks in Maths Felicitation of all Successful Candidates on 29th May 2014 from 11 a.m. onwards.

Offers Extensive coaching for the Repeaters of Class-X/XII-Arts/XII-Sci/XII-Com Hostel attached for both Boys and Girls (separately)

Residential and Correspondence Programmes Offered Master of Divinity (ATA) Bachelor of Theology (ATA) Diploma in Theology (ATA) Certificate in Theology (EBC)

Eligibility B.Th / B.A. / B. Sc

4 State Ranks

Sd/S.K. Maiti Principal, J.M, School

ADMISSION STARTED

Collaborated with Millennium International university (MIU), USA Accredited by Asia Theological Association (ATA)

Courses offered Master of Divinity (Regular & Extension)

Congratulations to all the Successful Candidates of HSLC Examination 2014

D.C.Court Road, Duncan: Dimapur Estd.2000

Eastern Bible College

ADMISSION OPEN FOR THE FOLLOWING COURSES:

N.L. Road, Latika Complex, Dimapur

VJ’S COACHING CENTRE

Contac: 03862-234272/248605/9436600530

Born Again, certain of your call to the ministry, and have the commitment to serve the Lord; you are welcome to Kohima Bible College -The first established Bible College in Nagaland and God’s own ordained place in training men and women for the Global mission.

The College: - is Bible-centered, Christ-centered and gives special emphasis on the deliverance ministry and to walk in the anointing work of the Holy Spirit.

- is committed for Spiritual quality with Academic excellence.

St. Mary’s Hr. Sec. School

Admission Forms and Prospectus for Class XI (Arts) will be issued at the school office from 25th of April 2014 during office hours (9:00 A.M to 2:00 P.M ) up to 12th May 2014. The following information's may kindly be noted.

1. Last date of submission 13th May 2014 (Students coming from NBSE should submit duly filled admission forms within 3 days of HSLC result.)

2. Direct Admission through oral interview for students scoring 50% and above.

3. Date of Admission 20th May 2014 4. Opening of class will be notified after ICSE results 5. Hostel facilities available for both Boy and Girls.

6. Candidates from Jubilee Memorial School will get direct admission in school/ hostel.

7. For further information, please contact school office 0369-2226319

N.B: Those who seek to take admission in the coaching and hostel are ask to come along with parents/guardians.

KOHIMA BIBLE COLLEGE

Associate Member of ATA, Affiliated to NATA & Approved by The Govt. of Nagaland P.O. Box – 482 Kohima: Nagaland

Accreditated to (NATA & IATA)

Akukupughu kikithi

A-a Atsala Ado

: : :

Registration : 1.00 – 2.00 PM

HUKUTHU KIGHINI

:

IKHIKULUTSA

:

AKIYETOU YEKIPITHIDO

:

AGHO KUTSU DO (Retd KSOK Memers 2011-14)

:

INOLI. TOKHENI AWOMI, VICE PRESIDENT KSOK.

:

INO HOSHETO ACHUMI CONVENER, NOMINATION COMMITTEE. REV. KIYETO PASTOR SABAK, KOHIMA LIVING WITNESS INO. HIMATO ZHIMOMI IFS, PRESIDENT SOUN. ER. HOZHETO SHIKHU TREASURER, KSOK REV. KIYEZHE CHISHI, PASTOR NCRC (SUMI) KOHIMA.

KSOK OFFICE BEARERS 2014-16 SHUKIPHE.

OFFICE BEARERS / AKITHEMI : AQAMI GHENGUNO INIBETSUNI AKIMICHI LE : HAKUTHOKUTSU TSA : SHIKIMITHI KEU TSA

:

KISHEKHA KIGHINI

:

PITHITSA

:

ADMISSION NOTICE Applications are invited from born again Christians for Admission to degrees BRE, B.Th. MRE & M.DIV offered for the academic session 2014-2015. It’s residential with separate good Hostel facilities for both Boys and Girls.

The College provides Music, Computer and also teach English upto B.Th.-II Year Level.

For more details, please contact no. 03862-248485(off), (M) 08974155744/ 09436004515. Office opens from 15th May 2014 onwards Sd/(Dr.R.Francis) Director-ITCS

Sd/(Dr.Khwan Leo Gangmei) Academic Dean-ITCS

HOTEL JAPFU, KOHIMA 9th MAY’ 2014 2:00 PM

INOLI. KITOSHI KIBA; ASSOC. PASTOR (W), SBCK. ER. KUGHAHO SEMA, PRESIDENT, KSOK. INO. G. IKUTO ZHIMOMI, GEN SECY, KSOK.

KSOK MEMBERS WORKING IN :- STATE GOVT./CENTRAL SERVICES/FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS/COLLEGE & UNIVERSITY/ ADVOCATES/ PVT DOCTORS ARE REQUESTED TO ATTEND POSITIVELY.

Sd/-(Er. Kughaho Sema) President, KSOK

C M Y K

4

Dimapur

public discoursE

Monday 5 May 2014

The Morung Express

An open letter to fellow Theologians & Pastors of Nagaland Dear colleagues, In all my years of attending Church services for over the past half a century, I have never heard of a sermon preached on the subject of nations or politics which is related to the existence of nations.

Is this because the subject of nations or nationhood is a non existing theme in the Bible? As for me, to my utter surprise, I discovered in 1997 that the Bible mentions the word “nation” and “Nations “481 times in the Bible. On the other hand, the word “salvation” is mentioned only 163 times in the Bible.

(This statistics is based on Google search and I am not here implying that the word nation is more important than the word salvation) The point that I however want to make is that, though the subject of salvation is almost always mentioned in our church services, why have we been silent on the subject of “nations” for all these years? Another point I would like to mention here is the fact that, without

der threat. And yet, will the theologically trained Nagas still keep mum and silent over these issues and only preach about heaven and the afterlife?

The Bible clearly declares that God is the creator of nations. It also states that He is the giver of our geographical lands (Acts 17:26; Dt 32:8 etc). As such, it clearly infers that the political and geographical sovereignty of any nation on earth is a right already granted to all nations by the sovereign God of the universe. Can India then forcibly occupy our God given lands and claim that Nagaland is Indian Territory and Nagas are Indians? Can they butcher over two lack Nagas with their military might and impose heinous laws like AFSPA and persecute Nagas for over half a century? When all these most ungodly and sacrilegious activities have been perpetrated in our lands, will Naga theologians and the Church just stand by and watch? Is the Indian state

the fact of nations and their existence, the subject of salvation would have no meaning whatsoever. After all, God did not send his son into the world to redeem the material world or the animals inhabiting the planet earth! Sadly, the word or the theme of nations or politics is almost a word of anathema (Forbidden) in our Churches. As for myself, I have been writing and speaking on this subject for the past 17 years.

As far as we Nagas are concerned, this subject of our nationhood and its implications has devastated our lands for the past 62 years (1947-2014). In this long period of time, many thousands of Nagas have sacrificed their lives for our national politics and cause. The survivors have also been so badly affected by its repercussions that today; our society has now become a society where our economic lives, our professional futures and even our very survival as a nation is un-

businEss Audi launches new upgraded version of A8L MUMBAI, MAy 4 (PTI): German luxury carmaker Audi on Sunday rolled out the upgraded version of its flagship model A8L, priced at Rs 1.12 crore (exshowroom Delhi) and Rs 1.14 crore (ex-showroom Maharashtra).

“The new Audi A8L offers luxury connoisseurs in India excellent comfort,

superb craftsmanship, strict lightweight construction and a broad portfolio of high-end technologies,” Audi India head Joe King said in a statement.

The new offering is available at all Audi dealerships across India.

“Audi India was the first luxury car manufacturer in India to cross the

10,000 sales mark in not just the calendar year but also in the financial year.

This double achievement ... validates the strength and stature that the brand has achieved in India.

2014 shall continue to be a landmark year for Audi in India in terms of initiatives on the product and network front,” King added.

Now, smartphone that folds into a tablet or laptop

TORONTO,MAy 4 (PTI): Scientists have developed the world’s first foldable smartphone that changes to a tablet and a notebook using a set of screens and hinges. The shape-changing smartphone allows users to fold open up to three flexible electrophoretic displays to provide extra screen real estate, the amount of space available on a display, when needed.

Displays are detachable such that users can fold the device into various shapes that can range from an ultra notebook shape to a foldout map. “In PaperFold, each display tile can act independently or as part of a single system,” said Dr Vertegaal, a professor in the School of Computing and Director of the Human Media Lab at Queen’s University, Canada.

“It allows multiple device form fac-

tors, providing support for mobile tasks that require large screen real estate or keyboards on demand, while retaining an ultra-compact, ultra-thin and lightweight form factor,” said Vertegaal. PaperFold automatically recognises its shape and changes its graphics to provide different functionality upon shape changes.

Researchers said the inspiration for PaperFold came from its namesake: paper. “The PaperFold smartphone adopts folding techniques that makes paper so versatile, and employs them to change views or functionality of a smartphone, as well as alter its screen real estate in a flexible manner. PaperFold demonstrates how form could equal function in malleable mobile devices,” Vertegaal said. The PaperFold was unvieled at the ACM CHI 2014 conference in Toronto.

imposed in Nagaland a divine will of God to which every Naga must bow their heads to? When some of our own so called national leaders are rampaging across our lands killing our own fellow Naga Christians and extorting every citizen of Nagaland with their slogan of Nagaland for Christ, will the Naga theologians and Churches just cower behind the four walls of their Churches and say nothing?

Fellow theologians, is there really nothing in the Bible to be said against all these evils in our lands?

When will we ever search the scriptures and come up with Biblical injunctions and teachings to combat all these evils perpetuated in our lands for the past more than six decades?

Any reader of the Bible will inevitably discover and realize that the Bible is a book about creation, nations, anthropology, history, and political rights. In fact almost all the Constitutions of the world and Civil Penal Codes of Govern-

ments on earth (including that of India’s too), are based on the Ten Commandments of God as enshrined in the Bible. Also all the universal declarations of human rights declared by the UN are based on Biblical laws and rights commanded by God. Besides this, the Bible is also a book about ecology, economy, agriculture etc. and man’s responsibility to nature as God’s regent on earth.

Why then are Naga theologians silent on all these issues of life that are pertinent for our survival and our existence on earth?

“Glory hallelujah” will be the day our Churches and theologians begin to speak on these issues from the thousands of pulpits across the length and breadth of Nagaland. Only such a day will usher in the Kingdom of God into Nagaland and make our land a glorious land whose God is the Lord (Ps.33:12).

Gender Planning

B

ible tells that, it is ‘Man then Woman’.

However, it ought to be ‘Woman then Man’ as the law of life. Women are in the increasing ratio in every sphere today, hence our planning process should change accordingly with the realities of statistics. The inevitable and irreplaceable role of the woman is childbearing and rearing. Therefore, to facilitate, we ought to emphasize on ‘Crèches’ in every office and all neighbourhoods. The relevant Departments should formulate projects and programmes towards the implementation by incorporation into the gender planning process of the Government.

Kaka D. Iralu

Against Illegal Immigration

T

he real, crucial and legitimate issue of illegal immigration into North-East from Bangladesh is being turned into the sameold and unending debate of Hindus vs Muslims or tribals vs Muslims by the politicians. A genuine problem for the North-East people is being given a communal twist and that results in the real problem being brushed aside.

The city-dwelling people will be shocked at the level of violence and take their sides based on their liberal leanings (“this level of violence is wrong, what’s the harm in them being settled?”) or their own religious belief.

SowhenNarendraModishoutsatapublicrally about the deportation of all the illegal immigrants, one can’t help being a bit uneasy. One knows that he is feeding on the angst of the people but the way he says it, it will turn many readers or listeners who might not know of the problem in detail to automatically be turned against what he says. They thengenerallyformareverseopinion.Ontheother hand, the people of the religious group who he is supposedtobeagainst,decidingthroughtheirreligious world-view, will oppose him anyway, feeling for the people from their religion.

Blaming Modi, when Omar Abdullah shouts that the violence happened because of what Modi said, the religious group which is against Modi agree even more, and against their questions, the religious organisations vigorously supporting Modi will give some stupid answer further intensifying the communal fire.

Questions like right to human life, right to living will be asked, and these being things which no one can deny or say no against (ah, the perils of liberalism!!), either a status quo is maintained or some reconciliatory solution is come up with, neither of which solves the problem.

I feel they are both wrong, that the issue is not to be looked at through religious-tinted lens. It’s not about one religious group or the other. Do look at North-East’s complex history, its phases

of becoming a part of India, the various nationalist movements that took place and one will realise (I hope) that the threat of the outsider has always been present in the North-East psyche (I might be wrong), that its many many small tribal communities have not only opposed being ruled by the democratic India after India’s independence, but also have always been at logger-heads with each other over land and water resources. So when illegal immigration happens and in such vast numbers, the feeling of uneasiness rises again. There is the fear of being swamped away, of becoming a minority in one’s own land, of having to readjust, again, one’s ways of life. And this after, I believe, the NE people have accepted being a part of India, inspite of the many violences and cases of racism (on both sides).

I hope this is a “secular” enough explanation as to why I, as a North-East person, am against illegal immigration. I believe after going through such tumultuous times, so much violence, we (the NE people) have the right to make our own decision about this issue. On this issue, we wouldn’t like the imposition of the same debate of one religion against the other. We are yet to solve our nearly 70-year old problems (nationalist movements, readjustment of land, water, resource rights, coming to terms with democracy in case of newer states), and I think illegal immigration is a very very ill-timed burden at this point. I hope that the problem is dealt in a humane, reasonable way. I had to say this because as an NE person, I am also afraid our voices will be lost within the louder and more virulent arguments of this religion against that. I am not against any religion, I do not condone violence.

P.S - This is my personal view. I have dared to speak, as if, for the various ethnic communities of NE. If someone from there doesn’t agree with me, he/she has all the right to.

Gankhu Sumnyan is a research scholar at the University of Hyderabad.

(Dominic Yazokie)

Their Blood Ne’er For Their Own (Dedicated to Lt. Loshuo and Lt. Chakho who were shot dead, yet died a patriotic death for the Naga Nation on the Sixth of May, 2010) The sixth of the month, the fifth of the week: As two strong ‘shoulders’ were brought down, Blood of worth on the ground spattered so meek; A sacrifice ne’er for their own.

My brothers had their lives laid down for nation; With their blood they sowed the seed of peace.

They fell prey to the foes’ indignation, But their patriotism ne’er did cease.

For “morrow’s bliss” you gave your “ grievous today”, Sowed the seeds,the fruits you ate not; A sacrifice dearer than money could buy.

And few a man took that daring road.

With a thankful heart to your mother’s meal And her blessings filled you left home, Just to be shot, unbelievably real. ‘twas your last step, for you ne’er returned home.

Without a farewell in silence you went Leaving your loved ones in sorrows; As though a patriot from heav’n been sent, To let your nation see brighter tomorrows.

Of you a thousand tongues shall a day sing, When your people for whom you worry Bow in respect as the Martyr’s Bells ring, The glorious day it dawns for victory: “Two strong ‘shoulders’ that day fell dead and cold, Had their lives for nation laid down.

Laid a sacrifice ever a man could, Their life and blood ne’er for their own.”

Athew Marck

Readers may please note that the contents of the articles, letters and opinions published do not reflect the outlook of this paper nor of the Editor in any form.

_

LEISURE

Simple Rules - There is just one simple rule: “Fill in the grid so that every row, every column, and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9.”

SUDOKU Game Number # 2867

DAILY CROSS WORD

CROSSWORD # 2874

DIMAPUR Civil Hospital:

STD CODE: 03862

Metro Hospital: Faith Hospital: Shamrock Hospital Zion Hospital: Police Control Room Police Traffic Control East Police Station West Police Station CIHSR (Referral Hospital) Dimapur hospital Apollo Hospital Info Centre: Railway: Indian Airlines Chumukedima Fire Brigade Nikos Hospital and Research Centre Nagaland Multispecialty Health & Research Centre

Answer Number # 2866

KOHIMA

Police Control Room: North Police Station: South Police Station: Fire Brigade: Naga Hospital: Oking Hospital: Bethel Nursing Home:

232224; Emergency229529, 229474 227930, 231081 228846 228254 231864, 224117, 227337 228400 232106 227607 232181 242555/ 242533 224041, 248011 230695/9402435652 131/228404 229366 282777 232032, 231031 248302, 09856006026

STD CODE: 0370

Northeast Shuttles

100/2244279 2222222 2222111 2222952 2222916 2243339 2224202

W

O

R

Indians

APACHE ARAPAHO CHEROKEE CHEYENNE CHICKAMAGUA CHICKASAW CHIPPEWA CHOCTAW COMMANCHE DELAWARE KAW KICKAPOO MIAMI MUSCOGEE NAVAJO OTTAWA PAWNEE PONCA POTAWATAMI SACANDFOX SEMINOLE SENECA SHAWNEE SIOUX TONKAWA

D

A N A V A J O I N A I K P P S I

A N N B O A C N O P O O A K H R

S

R U C H O C T A W O T W M A A G

A E O O F U Z T T A N I C W W C

E

P A H D P U D T W E A H K A N H

A L T C F U A A E M I C I P E E

A

H I S N N W T O I C F H C U E R

O T E E A A P W K V S I K D A O

R

C T M I M L M A A A I P A E P K

H O I I T E S M C E O P P L A E

E N N L I A M A O P U E O A C E

C

Y K O Q W O N E J C X W O W H R

E A L T Q D T D D U N A R A E Y

N W E I F E E G O C S U M R K L

N A Q O M S E N E C A N A E I O

E Y X Z M C H I C K A M A G U A

ACROSS 1. Not before 6. Twin sister of Ares 10. Cavort 14. More awful 15. No more than 16. Arab chieftain 17. Sea 18. Found in some lotions 19. Heredity unit 20. Officer 22. How old we are 23. Smack 24. Pester 26. Coarse file 30. French for “Summer” 31. A late time of life 32. Dwarf buffalo 33. Go on horseback 35. First Hebrew letter 39. A member of the Cosa Nostra 41. Spire 43. Jargon 44. Back of the neck 46. Char 47. Floral necklace 49. Brooch 50. Transmit 51. Lurch

54. Sit for a photo 56. “Oh my!”

57. A type of craftsman 63. Tears 64. Murres 65. Scold 66. Cain’s brother 67. Water chestnut 68. Creepy 69. Neat 70. Carry 71. Make improvements

DOWN 1. Absent Without Leave 2. Central points 3. Tall woody plant 4. Brother of Jacob 5. Leases 6. Something that is emitted 7. Connected by kinship 8. Weightlifters pump this 9. Boil 10. In spite of everything 11. Alpha’s opposite 12. Sources of ore 13. Iron 21. Decorative jugs 25. Wings 26. Adult male sheep 27. A Freudian stage

28. Couch 29. In a non-hurting manner 34. Spying 36. Type of sword 37. Scheme 38. Group of cattle 40. Curved molding 42. Anxious 45. Deputize 48. A deliberately offensive act 51. Unit of weight for gems 52. Excuse 53. Sexually assaulted 55. Master of ceremonies 58. Threesome 59. Throat-clearing sound 60. “Your majesty” 61. Norse god 62. Require Ans to CrossWord 2873

DIMAPUR: 03862-232201/101 (O) 9436601225 (OC) CHUMUKEDIMA: 03862-282777/101 (O) WOKHA: 03860-242215 (O) 9402643782 MOKOKCHUNG: 0369-2226225/101 (O) 9856872011 (OC) PHEK: 03865-223838/101 (O) 9436012949 (OC)

TUENSANG: 03861-220256/101 (O) 8974322879

08974997923

MON: 03869-290629/101 (O) 9856248962/ 9612805461 (OC)

Toll free No. 1098 childline

H

KOHIMA: 0370-2222952/101 (O) 9436062098 (OC)

ZUNHEBOTO: 03867-220444/101 (O) 9856158740 (OC)

CHILD WELFARE COMMITTEE

MOKOKCHUNG:

FIRE STATIONS

STD CODE: 0369

Police Station 1: Police Station 2 :

2226241 2226214

Civil Hospital: Woodland Nursing Home: Hotel Metsüpen (Tourist Lodge):

2226216 2226263 2226373/2229343

TAHAMzAM (formerly Senapati) STD CODE: 03871 Police Station: Fire Brigade

222246 222491

CHEVROLET CARS PRICE MAY ‘2014 CAR MODELS

STARTING PRICE

SPARK 1.0 MCE

3,38,705/-

BEAT 1.2 (PETROL)

3,91,493/-

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SAIL U-VA 1.2 (PETROL)

4,23,265/-

SAIL U-VA 1.3 (DIESEL)

5,33,999/-

SAIL 1.2 (PETROL)

5,03,799/-

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* CONDITION APPLY *3 YEARS / 100,000 KMS WARRANTY * FOR PETROL *CASHLESS OWNERSHIP MAINTENANCE OFFER

For details & Test drive Contact: Urban Station, Near NSC Petrol Pump, 6th Mile Dimapur. Ph No : 240994 CURRENCY EXCHANGE CURRENCY NOTES BUY(Rs) SELL(Rs) US Dollars Sterling Pound Hong Kong Dollar

60.05 100.76 7.73

60.48 101.89 7.81

Australian Dollar

55.47

56.27

Singapore Dollar Canadian Dollar Japanese Yen

47.66 54.65 58.44

48.22 55.32 59.15

Euro

82.68

83.5 9

Public SPace/lOcal

The Morung Express

T

he NBSE's declaration of 2014 HSLC/HLSSLC results has inspired a mixed feeling of elation as it did the negative ones.

At the outset, a hearty congratulations to all who topped the Charts including all those who have crossed this crucial milestone as well. Our hearts bleed for all the despairing parents and the children who failed to step over this threshold of destiny...having to spend another anxious year of putting their lives on hold. Over the years, the Nagas have developed a very thick hide of indifference towards all the life damaging events recurring around us. "Transparency" and "Accountability" are just words in the Dictionary having shed its relevance or application a long time ago. The present list of 26 Schools having produced NIL results as published in the Eastern Mirror on 1st May 2014, are all predominantly Government High Schools in the backwoods, barring one...

Hills Night High School, MKG. Just imagine!...not a single student in these Government High Schools could clear the exam. While poorly groomed pupils would certainly be a valid excuse to an extent for the failure, the lack of committed attention being paid to them to improve their lot is equally in question. The once honourable profession has been converted into a commercial venture by many unscrupulous teachers in the urban centres, charging exorbitant tuition fees per subject from weaker

Monday 5 May 2014

HSLC 2014 ... A mixed bag

students that they deliberately manufacture. Since most of rural parents are unable to afford such a practice the students are neglected to rot on their own. A dedicated teacher would normally be anxious to see his/her students improve on their performance by investing additional time to help the weaker lot without insisting on tuition fees. (The author was personally very fortunate to have come across one such teacher in his schooling years at Government High School, Kohima way back in 1965. It made all the world of a difference to his life). Given such an attention, the students ought not to have produced such a dismal result.

Either this or else the teaching faculty in these Government High Schools must all be unqualified to man the post... they should all be compulsorily made to write Metric examination. They too are likely to produce the same kind of NIL result. The Head Master and all the teaching faculty in these High Schools deserves to be suspended without exception for their dismal performance as a warning to all. It clearly depicts a picture of a Government out of touch with the real world, unconcerned about the helplessly option less people relying on the system to provide the needed succour.

As we climb up the ladder from the grassroots Village L P Schools to the High Schools level we see a lot of piled up garbage, detrimental to academic health of the students which remain unaddressed and oblivi-

ous to the School Education Department. Being a welfare State, the Government has established elementary schools in almost all the recognised villages to complete this frontal facade. The quality of knowledge being imparted is not an issue.

In the earlier episode, the author had recounted his experience on how the village teachers used the students for bird trapping for his dinner, fetching water, firewood, and cultivation of his field under the guise of an extra-curricular subject which routinely dominated the school activities. Compounding the problem is the academic year starting with elementary text books not being provided in time. Communitization of education has shown no marked improvement in academic excellence. The business of checks and balances for the system to perform effectively does not exist. Other than to superficially gather acclaim for a path breaking reform at the National and International forum, the actual application at the grassroots is just but in name.

A non-functional reform is no reform at all. The rural parents are rarely able to fathom the seriousness that the future destiny of their children are being scuttled by the sub-standard teachers in their village. As a consequence, unqualified, politically appointed proxy teachers wreak havoc doing nothing substantial but still being paid their monthly salary without any qualitative inputs. The only qualification they have is their political connections. It is a con-

sidered opinion that the politicians should exercise greater caution and abstain from this rampant, reckless teacher appointments for political gains, especially the unqualified and uncommitted ones. This is an important sector that needs dedication and commitment.

What ought to register in our minds is that such an ignorant uncommitted teacher would serve the Government for at least 30 years as a Government servant. Within this period, he/ she would be responsible for destroying that many generations of Nagas, singlehandedly.

If one teacher can do this much of damage, then think of the ominous magnitude of many such creatures flooding all the Government High Schools in Nagaland. Consider the catastrophic damage continuously being perpetuated against our society by each single, politically linked, subhuman without scruples. (It goes without saying that there are many dedicated teachers out there doing their very best as well and this negative appraisal does not necessarily apply to them). The Education committees in the village pays no attention to this farce being enacted either because of ignorance in many cases or for the political allegiance to their constituency MLA. Awareness campaign to help them uphold their responsibility uprightly, is nonexistent. The department needs to put its feet down and ruthlessly root out all unqualified and proxy teachers from the system in coordination with the Village Education Commit-

tees, who know their surroundings intimately but are unwilling to act on their own without coercion. It is not only pointless but impossible to try and take the system forward with a back gear engaged.

The 'no detention' policy has destroyed real learning with students getting promoted with or without knowledge being acquired at their respective levels. These students comprise the bulk of the ME Schools enrolment/intake. At this level too, a good percentage of the teaching faculty serving in the rural areas either have no political connection or are on punishment postings for having backed the losing horse in the election and therefore not particularly committed to their job. Combine the poor quality students coming from village base and the lack of commitment amongst many a teacher, and it makes a potent recipe for failure. Students churned out from such a background mostly join Government High Schools for lack of choice...financially.

While exception may exist, this perhaps is the broad scenario of our education system across the board. Under these circumstances producing NIL results is no surprise. The School Education Department should hang its head in shame at this pathetic performance...if there is any gray matter left in between their ears...and impose a system of accountability from top to bottom. Instead of investing more judiciously on the teaching faculty, especially for those having to man difficult outsta-

tions and make it worth their while to generate a vibrant platform of learning, we have come to a point where even the sanctioned amount for the teachers is being siphoned off. The picketing SSA teachers is perhaps the saddest testament of a department having lost all sense of direction to manage the system fairly, honestly and transparently. The lives and future of thousands of our children are being destroyed year after year.

This department is directly or indirectly responsible for manufacturing and multiplying the misfits and drop outs within the community which invariably tells on the intellectual health of the Nagas as a whole in the long run. It goes against the grain of sensibility to let this unconcerned trend continue.

While not discrediting the NSF for concerning itself with other social issues, their fundamental responsibility and focus ought to be that of a watch dog over the sanctity of the educational system operating on a positive scale of transparency and accountability...because this subject is directly related to their well being and their future. They surely understand that our society consists of an overwhelming percentage of poor people as compared to that of the rich, who are unable to send their children to better private institutions even if they wish they could. The majority, especially those in the rural sectors, are therefore totally dependent on the Government High Schools in their neighbourhoods...and this is the

Dimapur

5

kind of result being relentlessly produced unchecked, unpunished. Unless a strong deterrent action is taken and a strong voice is raised against glaring misdemeanours and mismanagement, the Government is not about to change its indifferent ways to improve its performance. NIL result will unfairly remain a way of life for the poor rural students. NSF ought to be standing side by side with the teachers in their quest for fair play. Their welfare being deliberately neglected by an uncaring Government is spilling over and directly impacting on the students...the ultimate victims. It would take more than a distant well wishing encouragement for the teachers to permanently resolve this sick dishonest trend.

There is a well known saying that “little knowledge is a dangerous thing". The Department of School Education must be made to pull up its socks and terminate this consistent effort of producing this 'dangerous thing' for our society. Amongst the NGOs, who qualifies more befittingly than the NSF to hold the whip and make this transformation happen? Despite sever water scarcity in Town, it is recommended that the NSF in particular and all the other NGOs in general, wash their faces with ice cold water and coordinate appropriate action to stem this rotten tide... Salvage the future destiny of our children.

Khekiye K. Sema IAS (Rtd) Forest Colony, Kohima

The Morung Express is introducing “Public Space” as part of our intention to provide deliberate space for the opinions of the people to be expressed and heard through this newspaper. Nonetheless, The Morung Express points out that the opinions expressed in the contents published in the “Public Space” do not reflect the views and position of the newspaper or the editor.

NPF Mon appeals support for Noke Nagaland delegation participate at apiculture conference moN, may 4 (mExN): All members of NPF Mon division have welcomed the decision of Noke Wangnao who had recently announced willingness to take up the responsibility of chief minister of Nagaland if given the opportunity. Informing this in a press release, NPF Mon division president, Thingtok Konyak said that Noke is one of the senior most members of the DAN cabinet and the regional party.

“He has stood by the principles and ideologies of the cock party from the day he joined the party.

Through thick and thin, he has stood by the party principles and has not wavered even once on the entire career.” Further, calling Noke a man of integrity and truth, NPF Mon division stated that the latter has never changed his party colour even once

throughout his career. “The Mon division upholds his leadership and acknowledges the fact the he has been one of the strongest pillars of regionalism in the political field,” it added.

Therefore, the NPF Mon division has appealed to all sections of the party, especially the chief minister, Neiphiu Rio and his legislative colleagues to give their blessings and support to Noke in the event of change of guard. It also urged the party president, Shurhozelie and all rank and file of the party to support the candidature of Noke.

“Such a gesture will create history and give opportunity to the eastern Nagas to lead the state as equal partners in our common endeavours of inclusive progress, accelerated development, and economic growth.”

Dimapur, may 4 (mExN): A threemember delegation from Nagaland Beekeeping & Honey Mission (NBHM) attended the 12th Asian Apiculture Association Conference held from April 24 – 27, 2014 at Antalya, Turkey. The team was led by NBHM Team Leader Wonchio Odyuo. According to a press release issued by Wonchio Odyuo, the conference was held under the theme “Save the bees from the world.” The conference, Wonchio said, offered a good opportunity to exchange experiences in various aspects and discussed latest developments in Apiculture. Around 40 speakers who were chosen among the most distinguished national and international experts in the field of apiculture participated in the conference. The conference included field visits to large agricultural lands, modern computer controlled greenhouses, bum- The 3 members from Nagaland Beekeeping & Honey Mission durblebee breeding facilities and pine honey ing the 12th Asian Apiculture Association Conference held in Turproduction areas. key from April 24-27.

MEx FILE

CM condoles with Kejong Chang

Kohima, may 4 (mExN): The chief minister of Nagaland, Neiphiu Rio has expressed sadness over the news of the sudden demise of Siponglemba Chang, son of Parliamentary Secretary Kejong Chang at his private residence in Tuensang on May 4. In a condolence message, commissioner & secretary to chief minister, on behalf of the CM and his wife, conveyed heartfelt condolences to Kejong Chang and other members of the family. The note further wished God’s strength upon Chang and prayed for the departed soul to rest in peace.

DDCF condemns border killing

Dimapur, may 4 (mExN): The Dimapur District Citizen Forum (DDCF) has strongly condemned the brutal killing of Supongtemjen Pongen allegedly by Assam Police near Indisen village on April 30, 2014.

Joseph Lemtur, President, DDCF in a press statement condemned “the gross human rights violation by the Assam Police and appealed to the Human Rights Organization to take note of the incident as no one has the right to take the life of a person even if he has committed a crime.” The DDCF also appealed to the Dimapur police to take care of the citizens of Nagaland living in the border areas of Dimapur. The Forum further extended heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family and prayed that the soul of the deceased rest in peace.

SZYO asks owner to claim bike

Officials and farmers along with the Farm School Teacher Vineisa Luho during the inauguration of potato farm school at Khuzama village. Kethobeilhou Vimera, A.O -II and BTT Convenor ATMA Chiephobozou Block inaugurated the school.

Civil engineers of Power Department and others on top of Mount Saramati.

REGIONAL NEWS

Dimapur, may 4 (mExN): The rightful owner of the bike (Bajaj Pulsar 150) that was left abandoned/neglected at Sechü Zubza jurisdiction after the February 11 incident has been asked to claim the bike with all the necessary original documents. Sechü Zubza Youth Organization (SZYO) president Megoneituo Kielienyü and its general secretary Vineikho Sechü in a press release have asked the owner to claim the bike within 15 days from the publication of this notice, failing which, no further claims would be entertained. The person concerned may contact these numbers 9856513619/ 9436077742/ 9436604741.

Arunachal BJP alleges massive rigging in polls Shirui faces deliberate climate change & water scarcity

iTaNaGar, may 4 (pTi): BJP in Arunachal Pradesh has alleged massive rigging in polls in the state and has demanded in writing from the chief electoral officer about breakdown or failure of CCTV recordings if any.

The party has urged the state chief electoral

officer (CEO) to issue directive to the returning officers and district electoral officers to review CCTV camera footages from the time of their installation to before counting of votes on May 16 next about any malfunctioning.

The party demanded

in writing from the CEO about breakdown or failure of recordings if any as per the guidelines of the EC, BJP said in a statement here on Sunday.

The party has also levelled allegations against CEO Chandra Bhushan Kumar charging him of violating EC guide-

lines "by constituting a team of officials of the state government who are very close to the ruling party" to inspect the strong rooms in the state "without giving any information to the candidates contesting in the Parliamentary and Assembly elections."

Dying cattle alarms Liangmai Naga Council

imphaL, may 4 (NNN): The Liangmai Naga Council (LNC) has sounded an alert that cattle are dying at Makui area along IT Road due to mysterious disease.

According to the LNC, number of buffaloes and cows have died due to mysterious disease at Makui village and its vicinity. The LNC wonders whether it could be due to water scarcity problem in the area.

The LNC has appealed the authority concerned to put its attention on the matter.

Meanwhile, the Liangmai tribe body said the work along the IT Road (Imphal-Tamen-

glong Road via Kangpokpi and Tamei) has not been done up to the mark. It urged the authority concerned to carry out the repairing work of IT Road by maintaining a work standard. It said in several portions of the road, it is still in deplorable condition even after the repairing work is said to have been done.

Regarding the Bailey bridge across Barak at Dikiuram and Katang under Tamei subdivision, the LNC said work has been going on for several years now, but it has not been completed. The LNC urged the authority concerned to

hand over the bridge to the public as soon as possible.

It then said the allegation against the Dikiuram chairman by certain people related to Barak Bridge is baseless and unfounded.

Certain person had lodged a police complaint that the chairman of Dikiuram had stolen some parts of the bridge. "We investigated physically and found the allegation untrue and unfounded," the LNC stated.

The Liangmai body then urged the government to address the drinking water woes in Tamei and Tousem subdivisions.

Sothing Shimray

SHIRUI (UKHRUL) |MAY 4

MANIPUR GOVERNMENT finally woke up to the rising criticism for not doing enough to combat climate change sequel by wanton deforestation leading to water shortage at Ukhrul by organising a one day environment protection workshop at Shirui village, one of the threatened eco hotspot zone of Manipur.

Experts from four government departments which included Public Health Engineering Department (PHED), Forest Department, Horticulture and Soil Conservation Department, and Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR), on Saturday had a day long brainstorming session with Shirui villagers and social organizations of the district to protect the environment of the proposed Shirui National Park.

The daylong deliberation, though short of arriving at any concrete step due to the reluctant stand of the villager, blamed wanton destruction of forest as one main cause which leads to environmental degradation of the area leading to water scarcity.

The villagers justified their stand on lumbering as the main source of livelihood in the absence of governmental

measures. “As the stream water has been taken away our perennial fields are now left dry and we are facing difficulties in rice cultivation. We have no other option but to fell tree and sell it for our sustenance as well as to support our children in their education,” asserted the villagers.

Lack of government attention in providing welfare measure to the villagers in addition to ignorance of the villager is also seemingly one reason which led to the present alarming situation.

Interestingly, Shirui forest within the proposed 100 sq.km national park is home to the many endangered flora and fauna including Shirui Lily, the state Flower of Manipur, and is also the only lifeline water source of Ukhrul town located 15 kms away. However, in recent years, due to wanton destruction of the forest area, the water source has been considerably reduced in addition to the vanishing of many protected species.

The virgin forest land around Shirui Hill from Shirui village to Sihai and Khayang village measuring about 100 sq kms was proposed by Manipur government for National Park in 1984. The move was stiffly countered by local people due to apprehension of depriving private properties as many of the land inside the proposed park are privately

owned. Following the opposition, the settlement proceeding of national park is still pending. Eastern Forest Division of Manipur Forest Department however declared the area as eco sensitive zone.

The climatic condition of Ukhrul and the surrounding villages are found undergoing drastic change in recent year with harsh summer and severe winter.

Experts blamed these changes to wanton destruction of forest and absence of forest regeneration programs. Government efforts are still found not bearing any fruit with most of the villagers unaware about the alarming calamity of climate change where the District’s social organizations are still sleeping over the issue.

The meet which was one of the first kind in the district in recent time was the joint effort of Tangkhul Naga Long, UKhrul Division of PHED, and Shirui village, to tackle the alarming climate change and water scarcity. Experts of the meet included Artax A. Shimray, President of Tangkhul Naga Long; Shangreiphao Vashum, Superintending Engineer of PHED; Swamikanta Singh, Director of CCDU, PHED; L. Manglem Singh, District Forest Officer; Suisa, Forest Ranger; Solei Luiram, Subject Matter Specialist of KVK, ICAR; Nikunja Singh, Executive Engineer of PHED Ukhrul.

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The Power of Truth

The Morung Express MonDAy 5 MAy 2014 voluME IX IssuE 121

Along Longkumer Consulting Editor

Renew Through Festival

A

s the colour and joy of Moatsu was celebrated across the State, it is only fair to suggest here that festivals should not only be celebrated and enjoyed but also emulated for the relevance or significance it carries.

Nagaland is declared as the Land of Festivals and throughout the year each Naga tribe is known to celebrate their respective traditional festival. While each tribal festival may differ, yet there is commonality as far as the message is concerned—dignity of labour and hard work; peace, unity and reconciliation; cooperation and co-existence; love and sharing; transparency, accountability and not to forget honesty of our forefathers. And it is for renewing our values that festivals should be celebrated and given importance. However, if we notice, during festivals, more importance is given to merrymaking, indulgence, feasting and glorification of things like wealth and power. Perhaps we need to tone down this outer manifestation of our festivities and give more or equal importance to educating ourselves about the deeper meaning and significance of our festivals. If we can do this, probably we will find many of the solution to the ills facing our Naga society and politics.

One of the aspects of our Naga festivals, which can have a positive impact especially for the younger generation, is the God given tradition of our forefathers to work and eat. And rightly so, this theme of dignity of labour and hard work finds a ready mention by Chief Guests, most notably politicians, who are invited to attend the numerous festivals throughout the year. In fact we need to propagate, promote and encourage the need for work to live and sustain. Many of the problems we face today such as extortion and crime is because of the misconceived notion that we can live off easy money rather than hard work. Our society has become such that there are the few who work hard with honesty yet they are being robbed of their hard earned money and labour.

Then the other thing we need to propagate more through our festival is to make our politics and government more transparent and accountable to the people. For instance, truth telling seems to be an important ingredient in our traditional platform such as the Morung. There is honesty and openness in the affairs of the Morung culture besides everyone has a shared responsibility and there is accountability to each other. Perhaps our government system can emulate the openness and shared responsibility of our Morung tradition. If we can do this, there is no reason why we cannot become better in running the affairs of our State and society.

Another aspect we need to educate ourselves about from our celebration of festivals is peaceful co-existence, unity and reconciliation. And perhaps in the present context where we need to rebuild our ties with each other as one Naga family, respective tribes can reach out to each other through cultural exchange programmes during such festivities. In fact the common platform provided by the annual Hornbill Festival in December should be better utilized not just to showcase our colorful culture and tradition to the outside world but also to help in healing and reconciliation of our internal imbroglio. Lastly, festival is perhaps the best time to reconnect with Mother Nature and create greater awareness on protecting our environment from willful destruction, maintaining hygiene and cleanliness. It is during our festivals that we notice the intricate link between man and nature and how our forefathers had lived in perfect harmony with nature—not by dominance or greed but through respect and sustenance. As a Land of Festival, let us celebrate our culture and identity while at the same time renewing our values.

(Feedback can be send to consultingeditormex@gmail.com)

lEfT wiNg |

Source: The Economist Blog

A GPS for ancestry

T

IN-FOCUS

he question “why are we what we are, where we are?” has intrigued humans since at least the time of Herodotus, who is often acknowledged as the first anthropologist. But answering it is far from easy. The geographical dispersal of traits such as blonde hair or blue eyes, for instance, is of little help because millennia of migrations, persecution, slavery, wars and invasions have massively muddied the waters of racial “purity”. As Charles Darwin observed in The Descent of Man, “it may be doubted whether any character can be named which is distinctive of a race and is constant.” The character of DNA, however, is another matter—and in the past decade the availability of a mass of genetic big data is making it easier to figure out where we all came from.

From the start of the DNA-sequencing era, computer modelling has established a strong relationship between genetic and geographical locations, although cultural isolation and admixture (when formerly separated populations interbreed) muddy these models too. As a result, existing biogeographic algorithms are still essentially based on racial definitions, and have proved fairly vague. If applied to Europe, for example, the best can trace individuals to within 700km of their ancestral origins (outside Europe they are even fuzzier), and correctly identify country of origin less than half of the time.

But a multinational research team led by Dr Eran Elhaik of Britain’s University of Sheffield is taking a different tack. Patterns of genetic diversity in human populations are often described as genome-based estimates of several ancestries that sum to 100%.

In other words, admixture is everywhere. So Dr Elhaik figured that a better starting point for tracing ancestry might be the hypothesis that everyone is to some extent genetically mixed.

To test this theory, Dr Elhaik and his team proposed an admixture-based model to develop what he calls a Geographic Population Structure (GPS) method for predicting individuals’ biogeographical origin. He identified 130,000 ancestry-informative markers (AIMs) in the human genome, then used 40,000-60,000 of the most relevant ones to divide the world’s population into nine gene pools, each with a distinctive genetic signature. (Dr Elhaik is at pains to note that this is only a computer model—reality is more complex.) GPS then mapped a variety of populations to discover, for each one, to which gene pools it belonged. All populations belonged to at least two pools; some to as many as nine (Bermudians and Puerto Ricans).

A paper just published in Nature Communications suggests that this model can be remarkably accurate. The team applied GPS to some 1650 individuals from around the world, gleaned both from highly heterogeneous populations such as Bermuda and Puerto Rico, and from communities that had deep roots in a single country, such as indigenous highland Peruvians and Sardinians. GPS correctly assigned 83% of the sample individuals to their ancestral country of origin, and 50% of them within 87km of their point of true origin. In Sardinia, an island settled 14,000 years ago that is genetically isolated and has experienced little geographic matrimonial movement, GPS was able to place a half of individuals to within 15km of their point of origin—and a quarter to their specific village of origin. Currently, GPS can accurately track origins back about 1,000 years. With the help of ancient DNA data, it could work much further back in time.

The potential uses of GPS are many. It could help adoptees find their true homes, enable missing children to be returned to their country of origin, and be employed in the fight against human trafficking. It could give evolutionary biologists greater insight into species and speciation, and assist archaeologists in mapping the biogeography of ancient populations. Dr Elhaik’s co-author, Dr Tatiana Tatarinova of the University of Southern California, has also created a website where individuals who have had their DNA sequenced (which costs about $100) can for a small fee upload the data and discover that, although they live in Islington, their roots are in İzmir.

THE EDIT PAGE

C O M M E N T A R Y

Nina Power Open Democracy

Time does not always heal

T

he individual is only a symptom of the broader social whole. For decades now, (anti-) psychiatrists, activists and political thinkers have said that mental health cannot be dissociated from the pathologies of the culture in which individuals are deemed to be unwell.

Any supposed polarisation between ‘the mental’ and ‘the social’ is torn apart in situations where political activity puts you in direct confrontation with the state.

When the state’s actions are directly responsible for injury, stress and mental illness, it is imperative that we do not dissociate one from the other. We cannot continue to blame individuals for profound structural wrongs.

I want to talk about the personal impact of a serious, prolonged encounter with the criminal justice system, and the collective impact this continues to have on friends and family. Above all, I want to stress that the way in which the state uses time is a method of punishing, even before it seeks to actually penalise you, what I have elsewhere called ‘the weaponisation of time’.

This stretching out of time is a central feature of what punishment is, from the slowness of bringing someone to trial, to the trial process itself, to prison, the purest manifestation of time used as a weapon, against the very nature of what it means to be human.

The implications for mental health, with the anonymous, seemingly indifferent state with its multiple faces - the police, the prosecutors, the guards - against isolated individuals, named, stripped of any context, are extreme: and it is always the most vulnerable who end up in the worst places, with around 70 per cent of prisoners suffering from two or more mental health disorders.

In December 2010, my partner Alfie Meadows was nearly killed by the police when an officer at an anti-tuition fees demo hit him over the head with a truncheon.

After recovering from the brain surgery that saved his life, he was charged with a serious public order offence. This was despite, or indeed, because of the fact that there was video footage of (and documentation relating to) the attack on him.

Police bloggers nevertheless continued to spread disinformation that Alfie had been hurt by another protester, repeatedly claiming that he had been hit by a concrete block. The frustration and anger about not being able to speak out about the truth of the situation online only made the situation more upsetting.

Alfie spent the next two-and-a-half years in and out of lawyers’ offices and courtrooms, before finally being acquitted a year ago.

Even before charges were brought, several months after he was seriously hurt, I was so viscerally, brutally angry I stopped being able to feel

M

y English friend Paul Kingsnorth was the subject of a long article two weeks ago in The New York Times magazine, “It’s the End of the World as We Know It ... and He Feels Fine.”

A former editor of The Ecologist, Paul has gained new attention of late for his passionate and public despair over “an age of ecocide” and his proclamations that we are now powerless to do anything about it. That expression of despair coincides with an equally public withdrawal from the battlefield of big-scale climate and environmental activism. He warns, “What all these movements are doing is selling a false premise. They’re saying, ‘If we take these actions, we will be able to achieve this goal.’ And if you can’t and you know that you are lying to people.”

We find ourselves at each step battling against powerful corporate forces pushing hard from the other side.

The article and his previous writings in the same vein have struck a resonant chord as the hard reality of what we face reveals itself, not in theories about the future but in the current realities of fierce storms, unprecedented droughts, mutating weather patterns, and a lack of political will to take strong action. More than 500 people left comments on the Times web site. A young activist who works with me at the Democracy Center, also from the U.K., emailed the article to her parents with a note saying, “This is exactly how I feel!”

The hard question that Paul Kingsnorth provokes is neither a new one nor is it only about the climate and environmental crisis. It has been a question inherent in political activism as long as there has been political activism: What action do we take when we have no guarantee at all that what we do will make any difference?

To be an activist is to plunge into

temperature. Months of poor sleep, poor eating and profound rage eventually mutated into something altogether much stranger as I entered into a strange twilight world, lit up by glimpses of things I knew weren’t there but were temporarily convinced were utterly, completely real.

Oscillating between panic and guilt because the person who was still recovering from surgery was now having to look after me, it took weeks to get back to some kind of flatter, less jagged space.

By the time the charge of 'violent disorder' was announced, when the Crown Prosecution Service had decided Alfie was fit enough to go to court, I was able to handle it calmly and coolly - after all, this is what they do isn’t it?

If they don’t kill you they try to blame you for their violence, for playing the role of victim, even.

As the trials rolled on - the first ending in a hung jury, the second falling apart after multiple delays and lawyer illnesses - support from friends, whether distant or near, a Facebook message or someone

holding your hand in court - became ever more important. By the time of the final day, four weeks into the third trial, it was indispensable.

We were all suffering. Seeing the state up close, seeing senior police officers lie and discuss how they would have turned machine guns on protesters, how they had called for rubber bullets, how the students had ‘asked for it’ - was extremely distressing. Where we couldn’t laugh about it we would drink and sink deeper into the horror of it all, repeating silly phrases from court, mocking their ridiculousness.

When jury members cried at the footage of protesters being smashed with shields, hit with batons, charged with horses and crushed on Westminster Bridge we cried too, even though we had seen all the footage many times before.

By the time of the verdict, we were almost too close to it to feel any relief, even as the political significance of it became increasingly apparent. Alfie and I got sick for weeks afterwards, feverish and full of nightmares. Attempting to chair a conference in a

windowless room, I panicked and ran out, being unable to stay anywhere that resembled a courtroom.

Only after the verdict was announced did I realise we had already started to see the world as a prison, locked-down, narrowed to a single dot. As this frame gradually lifted away I was left with an immense feeling of gratitude for all the support - from every card someone had sent Alfie in hospital, to every meal that someone had thoughtfully prepared.

Time started to unfurl less towards a single, bleak point than towards multiple possibilities, back to life, back to colour.

To avoid prison is to be immensely privileged. To avoid prison is to recognise all the factors - most of which have nothing to do with the ‘crime’ alleged to have been committed - that come into play: questions of race, of gender, of educational and class background, of age, of appearance, of the way in which you come across in court, your ‘likeability’ and demeanour.

In serious cases, it is to throw yourself on the mercy of the jury, to hope and rely on their inherent humanity and understanding. It is to hang an image of the future on the compassion of strangers.

It is a process that sees you repeatedly imagining the moment when they return their verdict and the bluntness of the one or two words that determine your life from that moment on. Never forget, as they will never let you forget, that ‘not guilty’ is not the same as innocent. You are never that.

If we managed to sur vive this ordeal, it was because of the support of people around us. The longterm costs to our collective mental health are still unclear to me: fear of the police is having a debilitating effect on some of those who spent most time at court, or who are very close to Alfie.

Protests are always accompanied by a feeling of violent hatred towards the police and fear of the harm they can do. But there were such positive aspects too. Having a politically astute legal team made a massive difference, and Alfie’s own strength of will in the face of his injury and a potentially lengthy prison sentence was incredible: this gentle, lovely, shy person being punished over and over again, just on the off-chance the state could make some pathetic political capital.

I still feel, I think, too close to the past few years to properly understand what happened, and what it has cost. At this point I only know that you can’t underestimate what support means in times of crisis, and that we need a more honest and open discussion of the types of psychic damage that the state inflicts upon those who try to question it.

When time takes on the form of the enemy, all your thoughts are potential wounds. It is worth remembering that time does not always heal.

Still in the fight Jim shultz

YES Magazine the unknown and into a world where guarantees of results do not exist. On climate and the environmental crisis we don’t know how far we’ve already pushed the planet toward ecological Armageddon or what impact we actually have when we block coal trains, hold impassioned news events, or get arrested at the White House.

So we guess, and there are two different ways we can guess wrong. The first is to overestimate our power to change what’s coming and to give people the “false hope” Kingsnorth warns about. The second is to underestimate what is possible, to believe that we are less powerful than we actually are and to do less than we can.

That’s the wrong guess that worries me more.

Faced with a choice between disappointment or failing to do all that is possible, I don’t find the decision a hard one to make.

The dictionary defines hope as “to want something to be true and to believe that it can be.” Despite so much evidence and sentiment to the contrary, on the climate crisis I remain radically hopeful. I am hopeful because the fundamentals of what we need to do—abandon fossil fuels, protect the planet’s forests, and organize our communities for resilience—are not mysteries nor are they impossible.

I am hopeful because I see among the young a powerful, rising culture of environmental consciousness, creativity and action that far surpasses any gen-

eration before it.

And I am hopeful because I’ve seen things happen that weren’t supposed to. A decade ago in the U.S. gay marriage was an issue Republicans put on ballots to bring out homophobic voters to the polls. Today it’s riding a juggernaut of support and inevitability.

What is truly possible never reveals itself until we take the risk to seek it.

That said, as an activist I am also radically realistic and action on climate is an especially hard case. Issues like gay marriage require changes of hearts and minds and public policy.

Action on climate requires all that as well, and then on top of it we still face the great unknown of how nature will respond to the changes we are able to make.

And as we press for action, we find ourselves at each step battling against powerful corporate forces pushing hard from the other side.

There is no doubt that the challenge we face is enormous and that major ecological damage is now an inevitability.

As Kingsnorth says, “Things that we value highly are going to be lost.”

It is easy to see how all this adds up to a crisis of hope at the heart of climate activism. To those activists, young and not so young, who feel this way, my message is just the opposite of Paul’s.

Don’t retreat—step it up, and as we do keep these three things in mind.

First, we must be strategic. Citizen action and energy is too valuable a resource to waste. We must be realistic

wRiTE-wiNg

about where we are starting from, especially in terms of political support.

We must be clear and smart about our goals and where we are trying to go. Then we need to develop plausible (not guaranteed) paths that have a real shot at taking us there, along with a commitment to making mid-course corrections in our strategies as we learn along the way.

Second, just as the world we seek to protect relies on natural biodiversity, we must respect that effective action requires “activism biodiversity.” Some of us will act locally, as Kingsnorth does now, teaching his neighbors how to wield a scythe and campaigning against construction of a local supermarket. Others will unmask the actions of fossil fuel companies, or chain themselves to trees, or campaign for more public transit, or take action in international forums. We need to do not one thing but all these things and more.

Finally, we must not let despair and resignation become the greatest gift we could ever hand to those who would love nothing more than for the climate movement to lose heart. Our truest strength does not come from any guarantee of outcome. It comes from the power of acting on our deepest convictions, of forming real community and acting together, and from knowing that what is truly possible never reveals itself until we take the risk to seek it.

Like Paul and others, I also mourn for what is being lost. I mourn most deeply on those days here in rural Tiquipaya when I awake to the roar of a chain saw and the wrenching thunder of a falling giant. What we can’t do is let that mourning stop us from doing all we can. As the labor activist and songwriter Joe Hill said on the eve of his execution a century ago, “Don’t mourn, organize!”

Jim ShultzJim Shultz, founder and executive director of The Democracy Center, has led citizen advocacy projects in more than two dozen countries across five continents.

Letters to the Editor should be sent to: The Morung Express, House No. 4, Duncan Bosti, Dimapur - 797112, Or –email: morung@gmail.com All letters (including those via email) should have the full name and Postal address of the sender.

Readers may please note that the contents of the articles, letters and opinions published do not reflect the outlook of this paper nor of the Editor in any form.

PERSPECTIVE

7 Rape victim's identity: disclosure for whom?

Monday

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

5 May 2014

NEWS ANALYSIS, FEATURE AND DISCOURSE

Laxmi Murthy (THE HOOT) n June 2013, Suzette Jordan, 38, shed the title "Park Street case" and courageously claimed her identity as a woman who had been raped but was not willing to remain a victim. This process of "coming out" took place almost a year and a half after she had been gang-raped in a moving car in Park Street, Kolkata. She joins the ranks of feisty women like Bhanwari Devi, Suman Rani, Bilkis Banu and Soni Sori, who have been subjected to rape and sexual violence but are determined to break the silence and fight back. With the support of the women's movement and civil rights activists who have stuck by them, these women chose to challenge the stigma of rape and have gone on to become the "face" of campaigns to end sexual violence against women.

In her disingenuous editorial page comment in the Times of India on 3 September, "Don't make her lose face" Bachi Karkaria exhorts women who have been raped: "reveal your identity and help cast aside the veil of misplaced disgrace." Ms Karkaria adds to the victim blaming by declaring: "It's time the raped woman stopped allowing us to add insult to her physical and mental injury by doubly burdening her with shame."

It is cruel to even suggest that a raped woman has a choice in being further burdened with shame, when shame and stigma are societal burdens thrust upon her without her consent. The veil of shame around rape and other forms of sexual violence were not created by women, but by a culture that valorises sexual purity and celebrates violent masculinity as the norm.

A victim is "one who is harmed or injured", and all women who have been subjected to sexual violence are victims of crime. However, it is on the strength of their tenacity and grit; with the continued support of family and friends and women's organisations; with legal redress and access to justice that many victims are able to become survivors. Transformation cannot occur with replacing a term as Ms Karkaria seems to suggest - there needs to be not only a change in mind-sets, but in support structures for victims to challenge impunity.

Merely by employing the term 'survivor' instead of 'victim', while encouraging reporters to go forth and rake in lascivious details of the acts of sexual violence, extent

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he murder and possible rape of a young woman working in a company located in the Sipcot Information Technology Park in Siruseri, on the outskirts of Chennai, is among the latest in the unrelenting series of rapes and gang rapes reported across the country over the past year. The four accused, who were promptly arrested, have reportedly confessed to raping, murdering and robbing her.

Commenting on the evident rise in the number of crimes involving sexual violence registered in Mumbai, including rapes committed by juveniles, a psychiatrist and child rights activist recently suggested that the media hype around such cases may well lead to some youngsters viewing the rapists as heroes worthy of emulation.

I must confess that the thought of copycat crimes has crossed my mind several times, as the intensified reporting of sexual violence in the news media since December 2012 appeared to indicate a dramatic spurt in the incidence of rapes involving multiple rapists. I have wondered if the option of gang rape could embolden men and boys who may not attempt to assault a woman on their own, but could draw strength from numbers if rape became a group activity, a form of fraternal diversion to supplement and consolidate male bonding over drinks.

Critiques of media coverage of sexual violence in general and rape in particular tend to focus primarily on sins of commission. While some of these—such as sensationalism and prurience— are professionally indefensible, others are more complicated: the amount and type of detail to be included in news reports, for example.

Take the question of the right to privacy.

The Indian Penal Code, as well as the limited ethical guidelines issued by the Press Council of India and the News Broadcasters’ Association, stress the need to protect the privacy of victims and survivors of sexual violence. Death does not automatically release the media from this obligation: According to the law, “the name or any matter which may make known the identity of the victim” can be published only if the next of kin authorizes it in writing.

In the case of the young woman who went missing near Chennai one mid-February night, her name, age, place of origin and employer were made public the day her body was finally discovered over a week later. Of the reports I scanned, only The Hindu persisted in referring to her as an employee of Tata Consultancy Services, providing no further details. In contrast, some media reports even included her photograph, with no attempt at morphing.

Most media outlets chose to report that the woman was raped before the results of forensic analysis, which alone could establish the nature of the crime, were available—presumably going by information provided by the police about the confession by the first two men arrested. Again, The Hindu was an exception. Some reports included several details about the likely sequence of events before, during and after the crime, obviously relying purely on police sources yet again.

Besides the overarching journalistic principles of accuracy, fairness and independence, the key precept that should inform decisions about necessary and unwarranted details is, surely, the interest of justice. Many details now routinely included in news reports on rape cases serve no constructive purpose and may, in fact, have negative consequences.

The controversy over when a legitimate and ethical, if aggressive, pursuit of truth in the interest of justice turns into an illegitimate, unprincipled trial by media that can result in miscarriage of justice raises troublesome questions which call for serious reflection even if there are no easy answers.

The tragic death of social activist Khurshid Anwar, who committed suicide last December following charges of rape—possibly pushed to the edge by a television programme—underlines the grave consequences of thoughtless or irresponsible journalism, however well-intentioned.

The good news is that there is growing debate

of injuries or medication being prescribed, the media is not doing a public service or furthering the ends of justice for the victim. Ms Karkaria's post-facto justification of the TOI's deplorable coverage by conveniently employing feminist metaphors rings rather hollow. In fact, it is the "card carrying feminists" she derides who have been consistently spearheading campaigns to end sexual violence, through street protests, advocacy and law reform, and ending stigma around rape has been one of the fulcrums of these campaigns.

Undoubtedly, the strictures - both legal and in media ethics - against revealing the name or any identifying details of those who have been subjected to rape or other forms of sexual violence emanate from notions of honour and shame not only of the individual woman but also of the family and community. Stigma is also linked with the loss of virginity and the high premium in Indian society placed on this tiny membrane. However, they also emanate, it must be remembered, from notions of privacy and confidentiality and the creation of a space to heal with dignity, free from the label of "rape victim". Victims of violent crimes deserve to be allowed to recuperate in every way possible - medical, emotional, psychological and at their workplace. They need to be left in peace, to recover from trauma - both of the rape itself, and the difficult journey to give evidence and stand witness. This is simply not possible with a prying media trying to lap up any tiny detail that would give a new angle to their stories. The media must also be alert to instances where their zeal to outwit their competitors and publish details, such as photographs and statements, or broadcast on-camera testimonies could in fact prejudice the legal case.

Cases of child victims require all the more sensitive handling, as they are in no position to intervene in matters of the media or the criminal justice system.

Some issues have special implications when it comes to children. For example, in cases of incest, naming the alleged perpetrator almost directly reveals the identity of the child. While saying that the perpetrators must be named and shamed, in these cases, women's organisations have had to review their strategies of public pressure on high-profile child abusers, as the publicity could back-fire on the abused child, severely impeding

Reporting rape ammu Joseph | Livemint

There is clearly an urgent need to step up and institutionalize ongoing efforts to improve media coverage of sexual violence. (Priyanka Parashar/Mint)

among journalists themselves on issues concerning media coverage of sexual violence in general, and rape in particular. Such welcome introspection has led to several attempts—by journalists or with their involvement—to evolve practical dos and don’ts that recognize the realities of reporting news in an ever more competitive media environment, but seek to promote ethical practice despite the undeniable, disagreeable pressures that most journalists, especially reporters, have to reckon with (see below).

However, the media’s equally critical sins of omission have yet to receive the attention they demand if coverage of sexual assault, including rape, is to serve its logical purpose: justice in general, gender justice in particular and, ultimately, the necessary decline in the prevalence of such violence.

A collaborative academic study focusing on “sexual violence journalism” in four leading English language publications before and after December 2012 concluded that, although this section of the press has made “small but important progress with respect to reporting on gender justice”, the news media needs to move beyond “the incident and crime cycle”, and away from the sensational aspects of such crimes, to progress towards “gender justice sensitive reporting”. The study is part of a larger project between the communication and culture programme, York and Ryerson Universities, in Toronto, Canada, and the Centre for Culture, Media and Governance, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.

What would this involve? To begin with, an acknowledgement—especially by decision makers in the media—that coverage of gender-related events and issues, including sexual violence, is serious business. Those reporting and commenting on the subject need to acquaint themselves with the complexities of the subject, the history of efforts to deal with these issues, and the debates and actions that have taken place in the past (in India from at least 1980 onwards).

In the wake of the December 2012 gang rape, for example, some sections of the media spearheaded a vociferous crusade calling for capital punishment in cases of sexual assault. There is little doubt that the relentless, emotive, campaign-style coverage and impassioned, impa-

her or his road to recovery and rehabilitation.

Currently, there is a well-defined legal position on the question of disclosing the identity of victims of sexual crimes. According to Section 228A of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, "Whoever prints or publishes the name or any matter which may make known the identity of any person against whom an offence under section 376, section 376A, section 376B, section 376C or section 376D is alleged or found to have been committed (hereafter in this section referred to as the victim) shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years and shall also be liable to fine." Thus, the IPC prohibits the disclosure, not only of the victim's name, but also of facts that could lead to the identification of the victim, such as the place of residence, identifying or naming the victim's family or friends, university, or work details. This covers dead, minor victims and those with unstable minds. Even if the name is to be disclosed for welfare or legal reasons, this must be done in writing, only to the appropriate government authority, which does not include the media. The only exceptions are when identities are revealed to the police, or by, or with the authorisation in writing of, the victim; or where the victim is dead or minor or of unsound mind, by, or with the authorisation in writing of, the next- of- kin of the victim. One newspaper, The Hindu, desisted from publishing the name of the young woman who was gang-raped in Delhi in December, even though other publications had begun publishing her name after her father revealed her identity and also expressed the family's desire to have the new law on sexual offences to be named after her. They did not have the written permission from her next-ofkin, said a statement by the editor.

Court proceedings also fall under the protection of the law in terms of identity disclosure. The same section says, "Whoever prints or publishes any matter in relation to any proceeding before a court with respect to an offence referred to in sub- section (1) [i.e. sexual crimes] without the previous permission of such court shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years and shall also be liable to fine." The printing or publication of the judgment of any High Court or the Supreme Court how-

tient television debates contributed to the apparent manufacture of consent among vocal sections of the media-consuming public about the desirability of the death penalty for rape, if only in high-profile cases. Little attention was paid to the fact that women’s organizations with long experience in tackling gender violence, as well as other groups and individuals committed to human rights, oppose the death penalty on the ground that it is not only wrong in principle but also unlikely to work in practice, especially in terms of reducing the incidence of sexual assault or increasing the conviction rate, or both.

The excessive and blinkered focus on retributive justice also obscures genuine hurdles in the path of justice of any kind: prejudice, ignorance, negligence, incompetence and worse within the investigative, legal and judicial systems. The media would serve the cause of justice better if they spent time and energy on creatively exposing these impediments instead of chasing elusive “exclusives” that are often based on unconfirmed (often incorrect), inconsequential or salacious trivia that shed no light on the matter and often violate the rights of the human beings involved.

Data on sexual crimes represents another area crying out for critical attention. Apart from the fact that undiscerning use of statistics is often misleading, it appears that National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data itself may be unintentionally deceptive, going by a report in The Hindu in October flagging a statistical flaw that could mean that even the December 2012 gang rape would not be counted in NCRB data on rape. Surprisingly, this sensational revelation, which was not denied, caused barely a ripple in the media.

Sometimes startling statistics are blandly presented when further examination is clearly required. For example, according to recent data attributed to the Delhi Police, 95% of the accused in rape cases are less than 25 years old. If this is indeed true it obviously has major implications for efforts to deal with the problem of sexual violence. If it is not, why was such incredible data released by the police? Or was police information misreported by the media?

The law is another area that requires more informed reporting. The new amendments to the law relating to rape, greeted with glee by much of the media barely a year ago, are now being widely criticized in the context of the charges recently filed against former Tehelka editor-in-chief Tarun Tejpal. Both the initial reaction and the present reassessment would be more instructive and convincing if lawyers and activists with the requisite knowledge and experience were consulted.

And then, most importantly, there is the social, cultural, economic and political context in which the apparent proliferation of sexual crimes is taking place. It is significant that the most serious efforts to delve into the lives of the perpetrators of the December 2012 gang rape, exploring what could possibly have led them to commit such a brutally violent crime, appeared in two international newspapers. Articles situating rape within the larger context of gender inequality and patriarchal attitudes towards women, on the one hand, and women’s growing consciousness, confidence and mobility, on the other, have appeared in the opinion and features sections of the print media; so have explorations of the skewed concepts of masculinity that underlie such crimes. However, such essential perspectives, which could promote better understanding of such violence, its causes and consequences, and what needs to be done to tackle the scourge, have not yet permeated sufficiently into regular media practice.

There is clearly an urgent need to step up and institutionalize ongoing efforts to improve media coverage of sexual violence. In some parts of the world, media professionals have sought sensitivity training from survivors of crime and those helping them to secure justice in order to improve the accuracy of their coverage and minimize the trauma it can cause. Such initiatives could make all the difference provided media institutions are willing to do things differently in order to make a difference.

ever does not amount to an offence within the meaning of this section.

Clearly, several publications have violated the law of the land by publishing identifying markers of the survivor of the Shakti Mills incident, and it is equally evident that these details did not drop into their laps by chance.

Reporters were let loose to aggressively seek out anyone willing (or even not so willing) to talk and extract information in desperate attempts at one-upmanship. Why else would reporters swoop down on the locality where the young woman lives and speak to her neighbours or security guards? Why else would they climb on to the window of her hospital room? The larger back-drop of the race for TRPs and the market-driven news industry cannot be ignored while commenting on the flouting of law or lack of media ethics, since the Norms of Journalistic Conduct issued by the Press Council of India (2010) are also unequivocal on the issue of revealing identity. With such clear laws and guidelines in place, media houses must be held accountable for any violations, no matter what their purported motive.

Names are emotive, and undoubtedly laden with potential for compassion and action. It is not surprising that the unknown physio-therapy student, whose rape and murder in Delhi last December prompted large-scale agitations, soon was given names - even the pseudonyms 'Nirbhaya' and 'Damini' became symbols of protest. Yet, the process of privacy and disclosure is complex and must not be reduced to a binary of brave vs cowardly.

Often, the drive for justice obviates concerns of privacy, especially in rural settings or close communities where privacy is at premium. Bhanwari Devi for example, has continued to live in the village where she was gang-raped by upper caste men more than 20 years ago. She does not have the luxury of confidentiality, as she was boycotted by her own community for daring to fight the case, and even single trip she made for a court hearing was open knowledge and the subject of taunting.

When and how a woman chooses to reveal her identity is a product of complex factors. Revealing her own identity can be an empowering process and one that contributes to furthering justice and ending impunity of perpetrators. It takes immense courage to stand up and fight, but the decision must remain hers, not the media's.

Silence of the lambs

Ghanwa Mirza | daily Times ncidents of rape are becoming endemic in Pakistani society, unfortunately giving impetus to its sensationalist reporting in the media, more specifically on news channels. A heated debate associated with it argues whether it is advisable to publicly discuss the incident of rape and highlight the unfortunate victims in the media. Evidently, public opinion opposes it — there is a clear-cut no. However, this answer is not that clear-cut; it involves certain complications.

In 2013, among 36 districts in Punjab, 26 did not report a single incident of rape. Why are these people silent about rape? Our society attaches some stigmas to rape and more to reporting the rape victim, especially since the taunts and torments faced by Mukhtaran Mai after being gang-raped in 2002. Unfortunately, this reporting is enjoyed as a ‘salty spicy’ news item. This depicts how apathetic we have become.

Most people have been propagating through the media, or any other forum, that keeping silent is the best option in such circumstances.

Answering what they believe bizarre, humiliating and immoral questions in a court of law heaps ignominy and disgrace on the rape victim who is already undergoing the effects of a trauma. Of course, grilling at such a point in time may shake the confidence of even a highly brave and bold molested woman. In a 1998 survey of women who reported assault crimes, the police had molested no less than 72 percent of the women as a punishment for their bold act of reporting the crime. The women that are raped under custody are less likely to get justice or remain faithful to the justice system after being raped by those who are supposed to be their defenders. From my point of view, though it is pretty simple, the more women report the crime, the more the rapist gets punished and the more it will infuse fright and horror in the rapist who perpetrates such a heinous crime blatantly. However, we live in Pakistan where the law has a lax grip.

Many hideous examples of rape exist: the comfort zones established for army officers in Japan for women to be used as objects of pleasure and the mutilation of between 300,000 to 400,000 Bengali women by Pakistani officers, during the ‘liberation’ process in 1971; these are all a form of punishment and retaliation, which the Pakistan army denies to this day. Unfortunately, the male genitals are considered a weapon, and rape is considered a form of revenge and a way to curb male anger and frustration.

When cruelty and torture become rampant under certain conditions, such as wartime, and during days of public turmoil, such gruesome crimes are feared widely and hence acceptable, though reluctantly. Similarly, there were Mughal emperors with harems, habitats for the women who were acquired commonly by the princes and officials residing in the palace. Sexual slavery has not only been a regular phenomenon but also an acceptable social norm throughout human history till about a century back. I recently overheard a woman comment about Mukhtaran Mai when she said, “Har kisi ko Mukhtaran ki tarhan rape kara ke green card nahi mil jata” (Not every woman gets herself raped and earns a green card for it). Such is the mentality surrounding rape and its victims. Moreover, General Pervez Musharraf, who was the president at the time, published this in the Washington Post: “You must understand the environment in Pakistan. This has become a moneymaking concern. A lot of people say ‘if you want to go abroad and get a visa for Canada or citizenship and be a millionaire, get yourself raped’.” It is a shocking and uncanny statement that truthfully reflects the typical Pakistani mindset.

One wonders if it is wise to report rape and fight against it in such conditions. Of course, I disagree with the bizarre green card theory that this woman came up with, but it is true that not every woman gets support for standing against this crime. Even Mukhtaran, to this day, is haunted by the scepticism of people who think of her as a manipulative traitor who brought a bad name to society. However, the question remains: how many of them actually try? Very few. While most incidents of the crime are unreported, how can we hurl such a generalised statement for all women?

Some people substantiate their opposition of proceeding with such cases with the logic that the agony and disgrace heaped on the family as a result is simply unbearable; it outweighs, by far, the gratification sought from getting justice. The highlighting of the crime is helping to remove the stigma against reporting the crime and discussing it.

After five-year-old Sumbul’s case, who was gang-raped and dumped outside a plaza in Lahore and another similar case of another five-year old who was raped and dumped outside a railway station in Sibi the following year, it becomes shocking to read lurid details printed in newspapers. When reporting, rape becomes a common thing and serves to humiliate the rapist. Proper reporting will definitely encourage silent victims to speak out, for whatever it is worth, and society will be forced to accommodate and accept them.

Another interesting thing is that people — and when I say people I mean middle-aged people — believe that the incidents of rape have spiked alarmingly over recent years. They have little idea of the sombre figures of unreported crime in official documents. It is not that rape is an invention of the 21st century, it is just that it was more unreported in the past and, therefore, unidentified, bringing protection to the criminal ultimately. No wonder then that most Pakistanis are not willing to accept rape as a reality, just like they are unwilling to accept other things and realities such as transsexuals. The truth is that every member of society is vulnerable to the crime of rape: me, you, he, she or whoever you believe to be safe. None is safe — none ever was.

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Readers may please note that, the contents of the articles published on this page do not reflect the outlook of this paper nor of the Editor in any form.

8

Dimapur

NATIONAL

Monday 5 May 2014

The Morung Express

EC failed to stop rigging, violence: Modi

AsAnsol (West BengAl), MAy 4 (IAns): Accusing the EC of failing to prevent rigging and violence in West Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, BJP leader Narendra Modi Sunday said the poll panel should not work on the basis of “which government has appointed it”.

“I am making a serious complaint against the Election Commission publicly from Asansol... If the commission, in its role of an umpire, has the guts to conduct free and fair polls in the remaining two phases, it must listen to me carefully.

“The commission has failed to prevent rigging, violence in these areas,” the Gujarat chief minister said while addressing an election meeting here.

“I know there was rampant rigging in the April 30 polls. Will this game continue?” The opposition in Bengal has complained of “massive rigging” by the state’s ruling Trinamool Congress during the April 30 poll in nine Lok Sabha

constituencies in the state and demanded repoll at a large number of booths.

However, the commission termed the polls “free, fair and peaceful” and turned down the plea for repoll. The BJP’s prime ministerial candidate also alleged that “false cases” were being slapped against his party’s candidate from Asansol, Babul Supriyo.

“It is the duty of the Election Commission to protect the citizens. I appeal to you to discharge your duties responsibly,” he said.

Modi said he had mentioned some seats in Uttar Pradesh where bogus voting is taking place, but the panel failed to do anything.

“I am saying again in these areas in Bengal, Bihar and eastern UP, the same thing is going to happen. Isn’t it the panel’s responsibility to ensure free polls, sans rigging? Without violence? So much is being spent for the polls....”

Asking the commission what it was up to, Modi said:

Snoopgate probe an act of despair: Modi

Panaji: Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi addresses BJP workers rally at Taligaun near Panaji in Goa on Sunday. (PTI Photo)

“The entire machinery is in your hands... you have more power than even the prime minister. Then why aren’t you doing your duties?

What is your thinking?”

“Which government has given you appoint-

ment, who is your boss... these cannot be the basis for the functioning of the Election Commission.”

Modi said that if the polls were peaceful in Gujarat or Maharashtra, then the credit does not go to

the poll panel because that happened on its own.

“But if the polls are peaceful in eastern UP, Bihar and Bengal ... if there is no rigging ... no violence ... no allegation, then the credit goes to the commission.”

Modi said that if the poll panel did not like what he was saying, it was free to slap another case on him, but its representative taping the speech should send it to the election commission promptly.

neW DelhI, MAy 4 (IAns): BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi has labelled as an “act of despair” the UPA government’s decision to appoint a sitting judge to probe the so-called snoopgate controversy.

“It is an act of despair by a government which is becoming increasingly certain about its defeat.

It is one of those last ditch efforts made by a government which seems increasingly inept at handling its defeat gracefully,” Modi told IANS in an e-mail interview.

The snoopgate controversy broke out in November when two investigating portals reported the alleged tapping of the telephones of a woman architect by Gujarat Police. It was alleged that then state home minister Amit Shah, a close aide of Modi, was in-

volved in tailing the woman on the alleged orders of the Gujarat chief minister.

Reminding the Congress of the saying “one must be humble in victory and gracious in defeat”, Modi said: “Several top leaders in this present (UPA) government did not even choose to contest the elections out of fear of losing.

“The few who have contested are staring at certain defeat. In such a scenario it is highly unbecoming of a lame-duck government to resort to abuse of state power for political ends,” he said in obvious anger.

Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde announced Friday that the government would appoint a judge before May 16, the day votes polled in the Lok Sabha election are counted, to head the judicial commission set up to investigate the issue.

Patients dying due to lack of stem cell donors Govt plans socio-economic survey in forest villages

neW DelhI, MAy 4 (PtI): Two-year-old Garvit Goel had to wait for over one year to get a donor for stem cell treatment for cure of his thalassemia, a lifethreatening blood disorder.

But Garvit, hailing from Panipat in Haryana, was lucky to get a donor. Thousands of patients die in India every year as it is very difficult to get stem cell donors in the country, unlike in Western countries.

Garvit had undergone blood transfusion immediately after he was detected with thalassemia at a hospital here when he was just six months old. The doctors at the BLK Super Speciality hospital suggested stem cell transplantation as cure for his disease.

KolKAtA, MAy 4 (IAns): Junglemahal - for years synonymous with the Maoist movement when bullets held sway - is now readying for the battle of the ballot under a heavy security blanket.

The forested stretches in the three districts of West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia will be voting May 7 for the Lok Sabha election.

The Trinamool Congress, riding on its success in the 2011 assembly and 2013 rural government polls, is hoping to unseat the Left Front from its longheld Jhargram, Purulia and Bankura constituencies.

The ‹Red Corridor› has not witnessed any subversive activity over the last two years.

But police and the Election Commission are sparing no effort to ensure people come out to vote without fear of Maoists.

Taking on the guerrillas who often call for a poll boycott, police have also put up banners and post-

Goel’s sibling was not a matched donor and for his parents, getting a donor outside the family was a herculean task.

Finally after a year-long struggle, the parents with the help of doctors could get in touch with Datri, an NGO which helps patients get donors for stem cell therapy.

“We found a suitable donor for Garvit in Datri database and performed the unrelated peripheral blood stem cell transplant in April last year. Garvit is doing fine,” said Dr Dharma R Choudhary, director, BLK Super Specialty.

The donor, 34-year old Sumeet Mahjan who is working with a Bangalorebased software company,

had registered himself with Datri when one of his colleagues’ child was diagnosed with Leukaemia.

Dr Vinod Raina, one of India’s leading oncologists, said India was lagging far behind in its requirement of stem cell donors to treat life-threatening diseases like cancer as around 500 such transplants take place annually compared to a requirement of 50,000.

Experts said it was not easy for patients to get possible match for stem cell therapy as for every patient, at least 20,000 donors are required to be searched.

Chief of Hemato-oncology and Transplantation department in Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute and Research Centre Dr Dinesh

Bhurani said there are large number of patients having blood disorders.

They have to wait for long to find stem cell donor.

“Firstly, there is lack of awareness, most people don’t even know that there is a need for donor for bone marrow transplant.

“Secondly, there is a fear factor. Most people are sceptical to become a donor thinking that it will have adverse effect on their health,” he said.

Raina, Director of Medical Oncology and Hematology at Fortis Memorial Research Institute, said the US had a registry of 22 million donors in a population of 317 million, but in India the figure was a poor 40,000 donors

neW DelhI, MAy 4 (PtI): The Centre is planning to conduct an exclusive socio-economic survey of the people living in and around forest areas to bring forth the role of forest products and ecosystem in their lifestyle.

The Union Environment and Forests Ministry says the exercise is necessary to assess the dependence of villagers on forests for livelihood, especially in the perspective of lifestyle change.

“The survey shall entail collecting information on socio-economic status of the people living in and around forest areas and their dependence on the forests for their livelihood needs,” states the new Na-

Bengal’s Red Corridor readies for polls ers questioning the Maoist violence.

«We have put up posters asking people ‹Is violence good?›, ‹What is the end of this meaningless violence?›» Purulia Superintendent of Police Sudhir Kumar Neelkanta told IANS over phone.

While the ultras have not called for a poll boycott this time, they have urged people to use the NOTA (None of the above) option available on the electronic voting machines this time, he said.

The region, which was hit by Left-wing extremism since 2005, incidentally has not seen a single death of civilians or security forces since 2013.

According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal maintained by the Institute for Conflict Management in New Delhi, extremist vi-

olence in West Bengal since 2005 has led to the loss of 699 lives, including 544 civilians, 65 security personnel and 90 extremists.

While 2010 accounted for the highest 425 killings, including those of 328 civilians, in 2012 only two civilians and two extremists were killed. In 2013, two ultras were killed. There has not been any death this year till April.

Inspector General (Western Zone) S.N. Gupta told IANS strict vigil is being kept at the BengalJharkhand border, with check-posts at strategic locations.

«We will conduct air surveillance and sanitise routes to the polling booths using anti-landmine vehicles,» he said.

Attacks on polling personnel in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh have claimed 21 lives.

Besides setting up 10 satellite phone terminals in Junglemahal, the poll panel will use roving camera-mounted vans ferrying security personnel for live monitoring of sensitive booths and transmitting the feed to the commission offices in Kolkata and New Delhi.

Polling will end two hours early at 4 p.m. in six assembly segments of Binpur, Bandwan and Jhargram under Jhargram parliamentary constgituency, and in Balrampur, Baghmundi and Joypur segments of Purulia.

The Mamata Banerjeeled Trinamool Congress is hoping to cash in on what it calls the Junglemahal model of development.

During her campaigns, Banerjee has harped on the development initiatives of her government, which is doling out rice at Rs.2 a kg

besides contributing to infrastructure.

The rehabilitation package for surrendering ultras and the gunning down of rebel Koteswar Rao alias Kishenji by security forces in 2011 have played a part in establishing peace.

However, the opposition says the area lacks even basic development.

CPI-M›s Pulin Behari Baske, hoping to retain Jhargram, alleges a tacit understanding between the Trinamool and the Maoists, and the party veteran and Bankura›s undefeated parliamentarian since 1980, Basudeb Acharia questions the «peace» in Junglemahal.

«If peace has really returned, then why is she still keeping the joint forces?»

Acharia told IANS, claiming most of the ultras were now with the Trinamool.

tional Working Plan Code adopted by the ministry.

The code, prepared by the Forest Research Institute (FRI), an arm of the ministry, says that available information on socio-economic status of the people living in forest fringe villages should be collected and assessed to bring forth the role of forest products and ecosystem in their lifestyle.

It says that the socioeconomic survey should include dependency on timber, fuel wood, fodder, grazing and other non-timber forest produces, and livelihood aspects.

“Since this is also a very important aspect of forestry, it has to be done with all seriousness,” says the National Working Plan Code But Trinamool›s Jhargram candidate Uma Soren swears by Banerjee›s development efforts.

«Trinamool has an alliance with development and not with the Maoists.

That is why those who had once taken up arms are now shunning violence and becoming part of the development brigade,» says Soren.

Several surrendered ultras are now elected representatives at various levels, mostly from the Trinamool.

However, Maoist sympathisers claim the surrenders were forced.

«With most of the activists being brutally killed, arrested or tortured and compelled to surrender, the movement may have halted for now. But people are still deprived and discriminated against, and this will spur them to raise their voices again,» Maoist sympathiser and renowned litterateur Varavara Rao told IANS.

Delhi’s ‘disguised environmentalists’ remain ignored

neW DelhI, MAy 4 (IAns): As the country celebrates the high voter turnout, there is a significant chunk of the population - some tens of thousands - that never got an opportunity to exercise their franchise. Its the vast army of ragpickers, who live literally on the streets or around garbage dumps, most of whom are migrants, and as yet there are no provisions for them to get themselves enrolled as voters as they all lack identity proof.

This means they remain untouched by India›s democracy and which never meets their aspirations.

According to NGOs working for their cause, in Delhi alone there are close to 50,000 rag pickers and nationally their numbers can be as high as 200,000, out of which 100,000 are children.

«My day starts early, and never really ends. I

reach the landfill at 7 every morning and sometimes spend my nights there. Where do I take out the time to vote?» asked Yasmin, a rag picker who spends her day among the filth and squalor at south Delhi›s Okhla landfill.

Hailing from Assam, Yasmin, who goes by her first name, added that her work, which involves picking out metal scrap, helps her earn at least Rs.200 per day.

«My earning depends on the quantity of metal I manage to collect on a particular day. I have a young daughter to feed, I cannot afford to miss a single day›s work,» she added, while her daughter kept nudging her to leave.

Rag pickers, who eke out a living by scavenging rags and other rubbish, form an important link in the waste management cycle. Yet they have been continuously ignored by

the government.

With constraints of not being able to take even a day off, these workers also do not have valid proof of identity that will help them to access the means to vote.

«Leaving alone a birth certificate, I do not have any identity proof; so it is not possible to vote,» Sudhano Mondal, a 24-year-old ragpicker, told IANS. Mondal, who is from West Bengal, said that though a drive to give Aadhar cards to the people in the area where he lives was initiated, it was stopped mid-way. Mondal and many other ragpickers inhabit the Tehkhand and Tughalabad region in south Delhi.

«I do not know what happened. We heard that we will be given the cards, but the drive never materialised,» he shrugged.

According to Chitra Mukherjee, manager (ad-

vocacy and outreach) of NGO Chintan: «The government is to be blamed for their plight.»

«They are an important part of the waste management cycle but the government fails to understand and acknowledge their role,» Mukherjee told IANS. In 2001, waste-picking was included among the hazardous occupations banned under the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act. But apart from this very brief mention, rag picking is ignored in legislation on child labour.

«Our government does not understand the role of waste pickers in the waste management process. We should try and work towards bringing them into the mainstream,» Mukherjee said.

The experts also believe that the ragpickers

also save almost 14 percent of the municipal budget annually.

As the ragpickers climb mountains of filth and sneak their way into a landfill, this also poses a lot of health hazards.

«But no one gives them the importance they deserve. Imagine the condition of this already overflowing site had they not been working,» the official in-charge of the Okhla landfill said, pointing to the rag pickers busy rummaging through the mountain of waste.

According to Sanjay Gupta, director of Chetna, an NGO working for street children, «there are no official figures on the rag pickers› population».

Without identity, their problems are manifold and not just confined to being able to exercise the right to vote.

«There are no schemes

for us to take loans. Hence we end up taking loans from local money lenders at very high interest rates.

It gets extremely difficult to make ends meet and pay off our debts. The government was not bothered in the past and no government will be in future,» Raju, a 32-year-old resident of Tughlaqabad village, told IANS. Sharing a similar problem, Murshida told IANS: «Not having a voter card is a big issue, especially when you want to apply for a gas connection. We have to pay a three times higher price for getting a cylinder.»

Echoing similar feelings, Janara Khatoon said: «We left Bengal and my entire family has been living in Delhi for the past 20 years. Since we belong to neither Bengal nor Delhi we do not have a single identity proof, forget a voting card.»

for 2014.

The government may seek help from sociologists, economists, socio-economists and recognised institutes to conduct the survey.

Spelling out the steps to be taken to conduct the survey, the code says villages situated within the limit of 3 km will be considered as forest fringe villages.

Stratified multi-stage random sampling will be followed for the socio-

economic survey. The first stage sampling units will be the fringe villages and the second stage sampling units will be the households.

The FRI says the code was developed over a period of five years by involving as many organisations and individuals as possible. According to the latest survey, the forest cover in the country has decreased by 367 sq kms.

‘Ready to serve life term if guilt is proved’

A Raja neW DelhI, MAy 4 (PtI): Former Telecom Minister A Raja, accused in the 2G spectrum case, has said he is ready to live his entire life in jail if any ill-gotten money is found with him. Raja, who is contesting the Lok Sabha Elections from The Niligiris in Tamil Nadu, cited a report published an English daily in 2011 quoting CBI sources that he had kept Rs 3,000 crore abroad.

“The same day I went to the judge, showed him the newspaper report and said I want to challenge Income Tax, Enforcement Directorate and CBI if they find one rupee or a dollar in my name, I will not contest the case and I will live my entire life in jail,” a news channel quoted Raja as saying in a release on his interview. Raja was arrested on February 2, 2011 and is under trial in an alleged mutli-crore 2G scam by CBI. He is out on bail now.

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had estimated that 2G licences allocated to companies under the tenure of Raja in 2008 caused the government a notional loss of about Rs 1.76 lakh crore. The calculations were based on the auction price that government got for 3G spectrum in 2010.

“The CAG failed to differentiate between 2G and 3G. 2G is meant for voice and 3G is meant for data (internet) transfer. You can’t compare PDS rice with Basmati rice. The rates will be definitely be different,” Raja said.

The Supreme Court of February 2, 2012 can-

celled all licences allocated in 2008 and ordered fresh auction to allocate spectrum at market determined rates. The auction of spectrum in November, 2012 and March, 2013 fetched bids of about Rs 13,000 crore. The last auction for 1800 Mhz (widely known as 2G spectrum) in February fetched government bids worth Rs 37,572 crore which as per present policy can also be used for 4G services.

Raja said whatever media portrayed as the biggest corruption is largely based on assumptions and not on the basis of record. The former telecom minister alleged business cartels, whose business were going to be affected by 2G spectrum allocation, have targetted him.

“I think they might have been afraid of what Raja was going to do will have complete aberration on the business network that was created by these people. They may be afraid of, (and) injected through the media that Raja is doing this, this wrong,” Raja said.

Raja claimed that it was because of him telecom call rates lowered to 50 paise per call. Basic call rates, without any scheme, are now 2 paise per second across most of the mobile operators. “I am challenging through this forum. Let all these institutions come together (and say) Raja did wrong, Prime Minister’s Office, Union Cabinet, Parliament, Planning Commission, CAG, CBI, Supreme Court, in all factors that were indicated in the charge-sheet,” Raja said.

Monday

InternatIonal

the Morung express

5 May 2014

Dimapur

9

China admits ‘growing Violence escalates in pains’ in Africa relations Ukraine, dozens killed

BEIJING, MAY 4 (AP): Chinese Premier Li Keqiang set off for a four-country tour of Africa on Sunday, acknowledging “growing pains” in China-Africa relations amid labor conflicts and other problems stemming from Chinese investment.

Li urged Chinese companies to strictly abide by local laws and regulations, hold themselves accountable for the quality of their projects and goods and to consumers, and “shoulder due responsibility” for local communities and the environment, in a news release quoted by the official Xinhua News Agency.

Last year, China-Africa trade reached $210 billion, with more than 2,500 Chinese companies operating on the continent, according to Xinhua. But tensions exist around allegations of shod-

dy construction and a lack of respect for employment and other local laws. China has also faced allegations that its pervasive influence has more than a whiff of colonialism about it.

“I wish to assure our African friends in all seriousness that China will never pursue a colonialist path like some countries did or allow colonialism, which belonged to the past, to reappear in Africa,” Li said.

Li said companies have encountered “growing pains” and the Chinese government takes such issues seriously. He said that problems in the ChinaAfrica relationship were, however, “isolated cases.”

Last year, Zambia’s government seized control of a Chinese-run coal mine, saying Chinese managers had failed to address safety, health and environmental

concerns. In 2010, two Chinese managers at the mine were accused of shooting miners during a labor dispute, and later clashes reportedly saw one Chinese worker killed and two others injured.

Li also urged African countries to protect the lawful rights and interests of Chinese companies and the safety of their employees. China has come under increasing pressure from its citizens to protect their rights abroad.

Li and his wife Cheng Hong are on a weeklong trip to Ethiopia, Nigeria, Angola and Kenya, the first time the premier has visited Africa since assuming office last year. Li will visit the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa and attend the 2014 World Economic Forum on Africa, held in Nigeria.

Ultra-Orthodox quietly joining Israeli military BNEI BRAK, MAY 4 (AP): Moshe Prigan starts his day off just like many other men in the ultraOrthodox city of Bnei Brak with his morning prayer.

It’s only later that the routine takes an unexpected twist, when he puts on his air force uniform and heads to the Israeli military headquarters in Tel Aviv.

The 30-year-old captain doesn’t just serve in the military. He also recruits other ultra-Orthodox Jewish men to enlist, something the cloistered community traditionally has avoided doing.

But with Israel recently passing a contentious law to gradually increase ultra-Orthodox enlistment, soldiers like Prigan could symbolize a historic shift among those known in Hebrew as “haredim,” or those who fear God. “The haredi community is a thinking community. They realize that what was cannot continue being,” Prigan said. “The Arab Spring is also happening in the Haredi community.

There is a Haredi Spring taking place as the Internet and the smartphones develop. You can’t avoid it.”

For Israel’s 66 years of existence, the ultra-Orthodox mostly have kept their distance from mainstream society by sticking close to their insular neighborhoods and dedicating their lives to study and prayer.

With government acquiescence, they also have skipped military service,

In this photo taken Wednesday, April 30, 2014, Jewish ultra-Orthodox military captain Moshe Prigan, 30, lays phylacteries for his morning prayer at home in the ultraOrthodox Jewish town of Bnei Brak, near Tel Aviv, Israel.

Prigan doesn’t just serve in the military, he also recruits other ultra-Orthodox Jewish men to enlist, something the cloistered community has traditionally avoided doing. The issue of military service is at the core of a cultural war over the place of ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israeli society today. (AP Photo)

which is compulsory for most Jewish men.

The issue of military service is at the core of a cultural war over the place of ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israeli society today.

Draft exemptions go back to Israel’s establishment in 1948, when the government allowed several hundred gifted students to pursue religious studies. The number of exemptions has grown over the years, with thousands of young religious men evading the draft to pursue seminary studies while most other Jewish men are conscripted for three years of mandatory service.

The exemptions have

caused widespread resentment toward the ultra-Orthodox and were a central issue in parliamentary elections last year.

Ultra-Orthodox leaders have vowed to resist the new law. They insist their young men serve the nation through prayer and study, thus preserving Jewish learning and heritage, and by maintaining a pious way of life that has kept the Jewish faith alive through centuries of persecution. They fear integration into the secular military will undermine their lifestyle, in which older men often avoid the workforce and collect welfare stipends while continuing to study full time.

ODESSA, MAY 4 (REUTERS): Pro-Russian rebels in the east freed seven European military observers on Saturday after holding them hostage for eight days, while Kiev pressed on with its biggest military operation so far to reclaim rebel-held territory in the area.

The riot in the Black Sea port of Odessa, ending in a deadly blaze in a besieged trade union building, was by far the worst incident in Ukraine since a February uprising that ended with a pro-Russian president fleeing the country.

A couple of hundred pro-Russian protesters in the eastern city of Donetsk stormed the governor›s business premises and the state security headquarters, ransacking files and smashing windows. The attack reflected growing disorder in the area, targeting as it did a security building that had already been brought under rebel control.

«This is for yesterday!» said Tatiana Kamniva outside the governor›s office.

«They›re monsters, worse than monsters.»

The Odessa clashes spread the violence from the eastern separatist heartland to an area far from the Russian frontier, raising the prospect of unrest sweeping more broadly across a country of around 45 million people the size of France.

The Kremlin, which has massed tens of thousands of soldiers on Ukraine›s eastern border and proclaims the right to invade to protect Russian speakers, said the government in Kiev and its Western backers were responsible for the deaths.

Kiev said the violence was provoked by foreign demonstrators sent in from Transdniestria, a nearby breakaway pro-Russian region of Moldova where Moscow has a military garrison. It said most of the dead who had been identified so far were from there.

On Saturday morning, people placed flowers near the burnt-out doors of the trade union building, lighting candles and putting up the yellow, white and red flag of the city. About 2,000 pro-Russian protesters outside the burnt-out building chanted «Odessa is a Russian city».

Events took a violent turn on Friday when a column of soccer supporters, chanting support for Ukraine›s leaders, clashed with men in black, some

A group of pro-Russia militia members armed with assault rifles, a machine gun and a grenade launcher rest in a street in Kramatorsk, Ukraine on May 3. On Saturday, news reports claimed fighting broke out in the city of Kramatorsk, about 15 kilometers (10 miles) south of Slovyansk. (AP Photo)

firing pistols. Television pictures showed police caught between the two sides.

Clashes then spread along the streets until rebels moved into a large trade union building. Petrol bombs were thrown and shots were heard though the exact sequence and detail of events remained unclear on Saturday.

Oleg Konstantinov, a journalist covering the events for a local Internet site, said bullets had flown in the melee before the blaze: «I was hit in the arm, then I started crawling, and then got hit in the back and leg.»

The Odessa bloodshed came on the same day that Kiev launched its biggest push yet to reassert its control over separatist areas in the east, hundreds of kilometers away, where armed pro-Russian rebels have proclaimed a «People›s Republic of Donetsk».

The rebels there aim to hold a referendum

Protestant leader blasts Sinn Fein over IRA arrest

BELFAST, MAY 4 (AP): The Protestant leader of Northern Ireland’s unity government launched a blistering attack Sunday on his Sinn Fein coalition colleagues, accusing them of attempting to intimidate the police into freeing Gerry Adams without charge.

The 65-year-old Sinn Fein leader remained in police custody for a fifth day, under questioning over allegations that he was Belfast commander of the outlawed Irish Republican Army in 1972 and ordered the killing of a widowed mother of 10. He could be released Sunday night when his legal detention period is set to expire.

Police also could charge him or seek a judge’s permission to extend his interrogation, a step previously taken Friday.

Since Adams’ arrest, the senior Sinn Fein politician in the unity government, Martin McGuinness, has warned that his party’s continued support for law and order —a key condition for participation in Northern Ireland’s five-party government — could depend on Adams’ treatment.

At a public rally Saturday, McGuinness told supporters that Adams was

Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness, centre, with party members Bobby Storey,right, and Martina Anderson as they arrive for a protest rally on the Falls Road, West Belfast, Northern Ireland, Saturday, May 3. Police continue to question the Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams at Antrim police station about the 1972 murder of Jean McConville. (AP Photo)

being victimized by Protestant hardliners within the police force “who are against the peace process and hate Gerry Adams and hate Sinn Fein.” He said Sinn Fein could not support detectives “acting in a politically biased and partisan fashion.”

First Minister Peter Rob-

inson, whose Democratic Unionist Party agreed to share power with Sinn Fein in 2007 on condition that the IRA-linked party accepted police authority, accused McGuinness of “a despicable, thuggish attempt to blackmail” the police.

In his harshest verbal attack on McGuinness

since agreeing to work alongside him, Robinson said Sinn Fein’s “obscene politicizing of the policing process” nauseated him.

“I warn Sinn Fein that they have crossed the line and should immediately cease this destructive behavior,” he said, suggesting that the future of Northern

Ireland’s government was at stake.

Robinson said McGuinness “seems incapable” of accepting the police’s right to investigate Adams.

He accused Sinn Fein of hypocrisy by demanding criminal investigations of killings committed by Protestant militants, the police and British Army but not of the IRA, which killed nearly 1,800 people during a failed 1970-1997 campaign to force Northern Ireland out of the United Kingdom.

Sinn Fein aides said McGuinness would respond to Robinson’s attack later Sunday. Power-sharing was the central goal of the U.S.-brokered Good Friday peace accord of 1998.

Detectives since Wednesday have been questioning Adams over abduction, killing and secret burial of Jean McConville, a widowed mother of 10 whom the IRA branded a British Army spy.

The IRA did not admit responsibility until 1999, and McConville’s remains were found only accidentally in 2003 near a Republic of Ireland beach. A 2006 investigation by Northern Ireland’s police complaints watchdog found no evidence she had been a spy.

on May 11 on secession from Ukraine, similar to one staged in March in Ukraine›s Crimea region, which was seized and annexed by Russiain a move that overturned the postCold War diplomatic order.

«NOT STOPPING» On Saturday the government said it was pressing on with the offensive in the area for a second day, and had recaptured a television tower and a security services building from rebels in Kramatorsk, a town near the rebel stronghold of Slaviansk. Health authorities said six people were killed in fighting.

«We are not stopping,» Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said in a post on Facebook.

The Donetsk region administration said snipers were shooting from rooftops in Kramatorsk, shops were closing and there was an atmosphere of panic. A Reuters correspondent reported in late afternoon, however, that the town was quiet.

Vasyl Krutov, head of a government «anti-terrorist center» behind the operation in the east, told a news conference: «What we are facing in the Donetsk region and in the eastern regions is not just some kind of short-lived uprising, it is in fact a war.»

The military operation in the east was overshadowed by the unprecedented violence in Odessa, a vibrant multi-ethnic port city that has seen some support for separatists but nothing like the riots that erupted on Friday.

Police said four people were killed, at least three shot dead, and dozens wounded in running battles between people backing Kiev and pro-Russian activists. The clashes ended with separatists holed up in the trade union building.

At least 37 people died in the blaze. On Saturday, police raised the death toll in the city to 42, easily the biggest toll since about 100 people were killed in Kiev

protests that toppled proRussian President Viktor Yanukovich in February.

«Kiev and its Western sponsors are practically provoking the bloodshed and bear direct responsibility for it,» RIA Novosti quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as telling reporters.

Kiev›s Interior Ministry blamed the pro-Russian protesters, saying they had attacked the pro-Ukrainians before retreating to the trade union headquarters, from where they opened fire on the crowd and threw out the petrol bombs that caused the blaze.

Odessa is located in the southwest of Ukraine, far from the eastern areas held by the rebels and far from the Russian frontier where Moscow has amassed forces. But it is close to Moldova›s Transdniestria region, where Russia also has troops.

The spread of violence to Odessa expands the zone of unrest across the breadth of southern and eastern Ukraine.

«Today we Ukrainians are constantly being pushed into confrontation, into civil conflict, toward the destruction of our country to its heart. We cannot allow this to happen,» said acting President Oleksander Turchinov.

Regional police chief Petro Lutsiuk said on Saturday more than 130 people had been detained and could face charges ranging from participating in riots to premeditated murder.

BIRTHDAY GUESTS The release of the military monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe resolves a major diplomatic issue for the West.

Moscow said the release showed the «bravery and humanism» of the rebels defending Slaviansk.

Western officials, including U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Germany›s Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, welcomed the release but said Russia should still do more to help de-escalate the crisis.

Kerry spoke to Russian Foreign Mininster Sergei Lavrov by telephone. Both sides said they agreed that the OSCE should play a bigger role in helping to reduce tension. The separatists had captured the monitor team on April 25 and described them as prisoners of war.

One Swede was freed earlier on health grounds while four Germans, a Czech, a Dane and a Pole were still being held until Saturday.

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY NAGALAND Chumukedima, Dimapur, Nagaland - 797 103

Advt.No: NIT-N/Advt/Recruit/0005/2014

dated 05.05.2014

Walk-in-Interview NIT Nagaland invites applicants for WALK-IN INTERVIEW for recruitment to the post of Assistant Security Officer, Security Supervisor, Technicians (Electrician & Plumber) and Lady Security personnels.

Assistant Security Officer: Eligibility: Ex-Serviceman (Army) not below the rank of Subedar/Subedar Major with untarnished disciplinary record and Security Course certificate.

Security Supervisor: Eligibility: Ex-Serviceman (Army) not below the rank of Havaldar with untarnished disciplinary record and Security Course Certificate.

Technician: (Electrician/Plumber) Eligibility: Diploma/ITI in the relevant field with atleast 5 years experience.

Security Personnel: Eligibility: Physically fit ladies between 18-35 years of age.

Appointment is purely contractual for a period of Six m ont hs .

Date and Time : 20-05-2014, 10:00 a.m. onwards Venue: Administrative Block, NIT Nagaland Chumukedima, Dimapur-797 103 Director

10

Dimapur

SPORTS

Monday 5 May 2014

The Morung Express

City beats Everton, favorite Barca's title defense takes a hit to win Premier League

Manchester City's Edin Dzeko celebrates after scoring the second goal of the game during their English Premier League soccer match against Everton at Goodison Park in Liverpool, England, Saturday May 3, 2014. (AP Photo)

LIVERPOOL, MAY 4 (AP): Edin Dzeko's brace helped Manchester City come from behind to beat Everton 3-2 and stay in control of the English Premier League title race on Saturday. City had won just one of its last 15 matches at Goodison Park and looked like continuing its poor run when Ross Barkley curled in a brilliant shot to give Everton an 11th-minute lead. However, Sergio Aguero equalized in the

22nd — before going off with an apparent groin injury — and Dzeko scored twice in a five-minute span around halftime to put City 3-1 ahead.

Romelu Lukaku's goal in the 65th set up a tense finish but City held on to provisionally go top of the standings on goal difference from Liverpool, and two points clear of Chelsea.

Victories in its two remaining games — at home to Aston Villa on Wednesday

and West Ham on Sunday — should clinch City a second championship in three years.

"The most important thing is to pick up form at the right time and we have two home games left," City captain Vincent Kompany said. "But the past has taught us to be careful."

Liverpool, which lost 2-0 to Chelsea last weekend, was looking for a big favor from its Merseyside neighbor to wrest back the advantage in this most open title race, and Barkley's goal will have been celebrated as much across Stanley Park as by Everton fans inside Goodison Park.

The 20-year-old midfielder, looking to force his way into Roy Hodgson's England squad for the World Cup, showed a glimpse of his undoubted class by curling a first-time effort into the top corner from just outside the area and was excellent throughout.

But Everton was second best after that with City controlling possession and looking more dangerous going forward — even with the 28th-minute withdrawal of Aguero that continued his frustrating, injury-plagued second half of the season.

The Argentina striker had been signaling to City's bench that he was hampered by his injury minutes before he latched onto Yaya Toure's through-ball and drove a low shot inside goalkeeper Tim Howard's near post for his 28th goal of the season.

BARCELONA, MAY 4 (AP): Barcelona conceded a second goal to Getafe forward Angel Lafita in injury time to stumble to a deflating 2-2 draw at home on Saturday, dealing a major blow to its hopes of repeating as Spanish league champion.

Lionel Messi volleyed in Dani Alves' pass for his 28th league goal this season in the 23rd minute, only for Lafita to level after a rare attack for Getafe in the 37th.

Substitute Cesc Fabregas appeared to put Barcelona back on track when he initiated a move that ended with Alexis Sanchez scoring in the 67th.

But Barcelona's brittle defense again betrayed it in the final moments when Lafita charged in to head home Jaime Gavilan's cross and grab a draw that silenced the Camp Nou. Out of the Champions League and Copa del Rey, Barcelona's chances of defending its domestic crown are fading fast. The Catalan club was left three points behind Atletico Madrid before the leader visits Levante on Sunday.

There are two more rounds after this weekend.

Real Madrid trails Atletico by six points but has a game in hand. Despite still being mathematically alive, Barcelona appears to have given up the title. "This hasn't been a good season, nor is this the way we wanted it to end," Barcelona coach Gerardo Martino said. "The responsibility lies with the manager. Our expectation was to stay in it as long as we could. We did so until

FC Barcelona's Adriano, from Brazil, right, duels for the ball against Getafe's Pablo Sarabia during a Spanish La Liga soccer match at the Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, May 3. (AP Photo)

today. If we haven't been able to beat a team fighting to stay up, then we don't deserve to be champions."

Barcelona has been sub-par in the second half of the season. After dropping just four points through the first 18 league games under Martino, it has dropped 18 points in the last 18 rounds.

Martino, who is widely expected to be fired, added, "Sometimes you don't think it's necessary to ask for a second chance because you don't deserve one." Elsewhere, Celta Vigo

Bayern to fine defender Boateng for "brainless" red card Pietersen to

BERLIN, MAY 4 (REUTERS): Bayern Munich defender Jerome Boateng will be fined by his club for being sent off at the end of their 4-1 win at Hamburg SV on Saturday after slapping an opponent.

Bayern CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said the Germany interna-

open cricket academies in Dubai, India

tional's action against Hamburg's Kemel Demirbay in the 86th minute was a clear lack of discipline.

"One could call this action brainless," Rummenigge told reporters.

"This is about a lack of discipline.

"It will be a fine in the high five digits. At 4-1 ahead and with fine

minutes left it should not happen," Rummenigge said, adding the player had already been informed of the club's decision. The central defender, who first touched foreheads with the Hamburg player and then slapped NEw DELhI, MAY 4 him, is expected to be named in Ger- (IANS): Former England star many's World Cup squad next week. batsman Kevin Pietersen will in October launch a cricket academy in Dubai, and will follow it with another academy in India. "I am going to start a cricket academy in Dubai in October. The venue is not confirmed yet but it will be a stateof-the-art facility. There will be various courses which will be taught and we will train kids TODAY'S MATCHES from the age of seven to 18," Pietersen, who was sacked from Rajasthan Royals vs Kolkata Knight Riders Ahmedabad the England team in February, Delhi Daredevils vs Chennai Super Kings Delhi said here Sunday.

The former England capto the defending champions ple of how a more relaxed done that bad considering tain said he chose Dubai, dismal run this season. atmosphere can help the whole team is strug- which is also the headquarters of the International Cricket Mumbai Indians, a you perform better," said gling at the moment. franchise which has a sup- Doull, who is now a wellHe has scored 108 runs Council (ICC), because of the centrality of the emirate. "We port staff as high-profile known commentator. in six games at an average chose Dubai because of its as the men in the middle, While the on-field line- of 18 besides taking four central location. The facilities bought Anderson for Rs. 4.5 up includes proven inter- wickets at 26.75, not the there are magnificent. The opcrore at the auction after he national names like Kieron kind of numbers he was portunity arose last year and created a sensation in the Pollard, Lasith Malinga, expected to deliver. we grabbed it. We are expectcricketing world by smash- Rohit Sharma, Michael "I think Mumbai paid ing kids from all around the ing the fastest ODI hun- Hussey and Harbhajan too much money for Co- world and will also be funding dred off 36 balls against the Singh, Mumbai`s the sup- rey. He is a good kid but disadvantaged kids," said the West Indies in January. The port staff boasts of team you have got to give him 33-year-old.

Pietersen, who is also the management opted for the icon Sachin Tendulkar, time to develop as an interNew Zealand all-rounder mentor Anil Kumble, advi- national player. He needs captain of the Delhi Darerather than retaining the sor Ricky Ponting, fielding at least two years more to devils in the ongoing Indian likes of Glenn Maxwell and coach Jonty Rhodes and improve his game. He has Premier League (IPL), said Dwayne Smith, who are coach John Wright. just started playing for New India will be the second location for his academy. "After doing well for their new Maxwell has already Zealand. Even the fastest Dubai, the second academy teams -- Kings XI Punjab said that he is much more hundred he scored was in is going to be set up in India and Chennai Super Kings relaxed at Kings XI Punjab, a shortened game," said for sure. It is high on priority," respectively. in the absence of plethora Doull. Anderson has rep- said Pietersen, who will also "Look how Smith and of stars. To be fair to An- resented New Zealand in be playing in the Caribbean Maxwell are doing now. derson, the 23-year-old seven Tests, 12 ODIs and as Premier League (CPL) later Theirs are a good exam- from Christchurch, has not many T20 Internationals. in the summer.

Overpriced Anderson feeling the pressure at MI: Simon Doull 5-May 5-May

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NEw DELhI, MAY 4 (PTI): Former New Zealand cricketer Simon Doull feels compatriot Corey Anderson has not been able to express himself in the starstudded Mumbai Indians as he is feeling the pressure after being bought for too big a price tag in the IPL players` auction.

"It was always going to be hard for Corey to fire in his first IPL as Mumbai Indians paid a lot of money for him which added the pressure on him," Doull told PTI here in an interview. "They are not the team they were last year so now there is more pressure on Cory to perform which is not how it should be for a young man still finding his way in the early part of his career," he said referring

Leander Paes moves court for his daughter's custody MUMBAI, MAY 4 (TNN): Tennis star Leander Paes on Saturday served an ace in a different court. He filed a guardianship petition for permanent custody of his and partner Rhea Pillai's minor daughter. Paes also wants the family court in Bandra to restrain Rhea from taking the child out of Mumbai without court's permission. He is "concerned for her safety and welfare", because he feels Rhea's "escapades, indiscreet and irresponsible behaviour, lack of personal maternal supervision, volatile temper and self-indulgence create insecurity in the child and is detrimental to a healthy upbringing."

Though not legally married, his relationship with Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt's former wife Rhea, now 48, began in 2003 when they met on a flight from Goa to Mumbai. The decade-old bonding took a hit when the holder of 14 Grand Slam titles discovered that he was

not her only match. But the tipping point for him came when Rhea allegedly refused to send their child with him to the ceremony when he won the Padma Bhushan award, the third highest civilian honour,

this year. His plea in court runs into 30 pages and is detailed with several annexures to prove that he would be the better parent.

"From the time of her birth in April 2006 and despite his hec-

tic work schedule, he has always been involved in looking after their child-from bathing and changing diapers to reading bedtime stories and putting her to bed."

It was his vigilance that helped diagnose the child's sleep apnea.

He wakes her up for school at 6.45am, gets her ready and drives her to school. His life, it said, "revolves" around his daughter, and he lets her pursue her passion for music, ballet and taekwondo.

The plea says that Rhea, an Art of Living instructor, "leads a lazy, self-indulgent and laidback life... and has never taken the child alone, always has two maids even on holidays abroad".

Paes was also shocked that he learnt of Rhea and Dutt's 2008 mutual consent divorce only in June 2013. He said she had misrepresented to him in 2005 that she was divorced, after which, he said, they got intimate and conceived their child.

won 2-0 at Osasuna, Elche won 1-0 at Malaga, and Valladolid edged Espanyol 1-0 as it tries to escape the relegation zone.

Barcelona's first home game since former coach Tito Vilanova's death last week from throat cancer featured a commemorative video, an enormous banner with the message "Tito, Always Eternal," and a minute's silence before kickoff.

Barring slipups by Atletico and Madrid, Barcelona won't win a major title for the first time since the 2007-08 season, before for-

mer coach Pep Guardiola took over with Vilanova as his assistant. Vilanova led the team to the league title last year in his only season as coach. Barcelona dominated the outclassed Getafe for the first 80 minutes, but its lack of scoring touch cost the host dearly.

Lafita converted two of Getafe's three scoring opportunities, while Pedro Rodriguez and Alexis were particularly off target for a Barcelona side that generated a plethora of empty shots. Barcelona midfielder Sergio Busquets said

the players were the "only ones" to blame.

"We have committed mistakes that are not befitting players who want to play in this league. We won't win any titles this year, and I hope that serves the team in years to come."

Getafe rested one point above the relegation zone.

In Pamplona, Manuel "Nolito" Agudo scored his third brace in as many games for Celta. He struck first in the 20th with an exquisite chip shot and followed that by driving in a cross from an angle in the 34th.

Clippers, Pacers & Thunder progress LOS ANGELES, MAY 4 (AP): The Los Angeles Clippers, Indiana Pacers and Oklahoma City all capitalized on home-court advantage to win their respective Game 7s on Saturday, progressing to the second round of the NBA playoffs.

Los Angeles beat California rival Golden State 126-121, Indiana won 92-80 to finally see off eighth-seeded Atlanta, and Oklahoma City defeated Memphis 120-109.

Los Angeles' Blake Griffin scored 24 points, Chris Paul had 22 points and 14 assists and Jamal Crawford added 22 as the Clippers won only a playoff series for only the third time in 38 years. They did so against a backdrop of uncertainty about the future of the team, which is likely to be put up for sale following the life ban on owner Donald Sterling for racist remarks.

Los Angeles will face Oklahoma City in the second round, with the Thunder hosting the opening game on Monday.

Stephen Curry had 33 points and nine assists while Draymond Green added 24 for Golden State, which blew a late lead and lost a Game 7 for the first time in 37 years.

Curry hit three free throws with 30 seconds left, and Green hit a 3-pointer to trim the lead to 120-118.

But J.J. Redick hit two more free throws to ice it for the Clippers. The game could have been the last for Golden State coach Mark Jackson, who might be on shaky ground with Warriors ownership despite presiding over the long-struggling franchise's best two-year stretch in two decades.

Indiana's Paul George scored a playoff careerhigh 30 points to lead the Pacers past Atlanta.

Indiana staved off elimination for the second time in three days. It's the first time since mid-March the Pacers' regular starters have won back-to-back games. The Pacers will be back on their home floor Monday against Washington in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Kyle Korver scored 19

Los Angeles Clippers forward Blake Griffin (32) goes up against Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green (23) during the first half of Game 7 of a first-round NBA basketball playoff series, Saturday, May 3 in Los Angeles. (AP Photo)

points and Jeff Teague had 16 for Atlanta, which won just 38 games in the regular season but proved to be a tough opponent for the Pacers.The game turned on a 24-6 run over a 10:02 stretch that spanned the second and third quarters.

That gave Indiana a 57-40 lead it never surrendered.

Roy Hibbert, who scored just 20 points total in the first four games, had a series-high 13 points and seven rebounds for the Pacers.

The Pacers finished with a 55-38 rebounding edge and with Hibbert clogging the way, the Hawks were forced to rely primarily on 3-pointers. Atlanta wound up just 11 of 44 from beyond the arc.

Oklahoma City was led to victory over Memphis by star pairing Kevin Durant

and Russell Westbrook.

Durant scored 33 points while Westbrook had a triple-double of 27 points, 16 assists and 10 rebounds.

The gritty Grizzlies, playing without leading scorer Zach Randolph because of a suspension, led by 11 points in the first half before the Thunder overwhelmed them and shot 66 percent after the break.

Marc Gasol led Memphis with 24 points. Grizzlies point guard Mike Conley had 20 points and nine assists while playing with a strained right hamstring.

Durant, slowed for much of the series, looked like his normal self. The regular-season scoring champion made 12 of 18 field goals and all five of his 3-pointers after struggling from long range throughout the series.

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more personality.

However, it didn’t take the 42-year-old actor long to give the gong its first dent as he managed to smash it on a bannister just two days after receiving it. He said at the time: “True story, I was

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Jared Leto Wants Oscar Award With ‘Scuffs And Bruises’ ared Leto likes his Oscar award with “scuffs and bruises”. The ‘Dallas Buyers Club’ star won the Best Supporting Actor prize for his role in the biopic at the glamorous event in March, but he doesn’t mind

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‘Resurrection’ Album Review

some food, so that he can look at it every time he comes home.

He said previously: “The Oscar is sitting in my kitchen guarded by some vegan butter and a bag of popcorn.”

“Jared Leto admits he doesn’t mind that his Oscar award already has some wear and tear because he thinks the dents give it “personality” that the trophy has already been damaged because he thinks it gives it a better story. Speaking to ‘Access Hollywood’, he said: “I wasn’t shy with it. I let people kind of take pictures with it and have fun and I think that’s what it’s really about. It got some scuffs and bruises, but it’s all the better for it,

letting some of the people that I work with take a picture with the Oscar, and I was carrying it downstairs and boom - I hit the railing on the stairs and I put a little nick in the back of it.” Meanwhile, the 30 Seconds to Mars frontman has decided to stash his award in the kitchen, disguised by

Priyanka Chopra’s ex-flame set to direct a film on her T

he life and times of being an actress is no less than a cinematic experience on its own. The very same thought it seems has struck Aseem Merchant, the man better known as Bollywood diva Priyanka Chopra`s alleged ex-boyfriend.

The latest buzz in BTown is that modelturned-actor Aseem is now planning to make C M Y K

his foray into the world of direction with their real life story to tell. It has been widely reported that former Miss World Priyanka Chopra was dating Aseem during her modelling days and post her crown winning moment, the relationship gradually ended. Now, what we hear is that Aseem is set to depict the actress`s struggling days in Bollywood, the time when she was making her presence felt in the industry. Also, the

film will reportedly capture the very infamous incident of PeeCee`s life, involving her ex-manager Prakash Jaju. According to reports, the film is most likely to cover the entire episode of Prakash-Priyanka fallout and the former`s stay in jail after Piggy Chops lodged a complaint against him. It would definitely be very interesting to see how Aseem unfolds the controversial narrative involving a topnotch Bollywood actress.

‘completely shocked’ to discover she is already SIX MONTHS pregnant with fifth baby S

he only gave birth to her fourth child, Jett, late last August, and Katie Price, 35, is reportedly shocked to discover she is already six months pregnant with her fifth baby. The Sun on Sunday claims that she and her husband Kieran Hayler, 27, conceived again last November, but only recently discovered the news after the reality star unwell while on holiday. The paper adds that she suffered a series of stomach aches while away on her break with her third husband and children in Cape Verde just last month - their first holiday with baby Jett. A source told The Sun: ‘It’s not something they had planned this soon after Jett, but they’re still delighted. The news came as a complete shock.

‘Katie’s already in her second trimester so has been pregnant for nearly six months without even realising it.

She’s due later this summer. ‘Unlike her other four pregnancies, she’s yet to have any cravings and is not showing much, either.’ The couple seem to have thoroughly enjoyed their time away and upon his return, plasterer Kieran tweeted how much he loved the time spent abroad.

He wrote a message to Lauren Goodger saying: ‘Cape Verde. Was perfect, such a nice place. Yeah we all need a catch up. X’ Kieran and Katie

were pictured shopping in Mothercare in Brighton on Wednesday and picked up a carrier bag full of things - perhaps for the baby. It’s fair to say that Katie is taking care of herself at the moment and on Friday she tweeted: ‘Just got home, time to relax & have a detox tea from http://Bootea. com ! Nearly run out & will need to order again soon @ BooteaUK #spon.’ [sic] The loved-up couple married at a Bahamas beach resort after a brief romance at the end of last year with Katie saying that this marriage will be her last. Katie is also mother to Harvey, 12, from her relationship with footballer Dwight Yorke, Junior, 9 and Princess, 7, from her marriage to Peter Andre and nine-month-old Jett.

MailOnline has contacted a spokesperson for Katie Price for comment.

TV actor EFREM ZIMBALIST, JR. has died, aged 95.

“We are heartbroken to announce the passing into peace of our beloved father, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr “

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he star, most famous for his role in long-running detective drama The F.B.I., died of natural causes at his ranch in California on Friday (02May14). Two of his children, Stephanie and Efrem Zimbalist III, wrote in a statement,”We are heartbroken to announce the passing into peace of our beloved father, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., today at his Solvang, Calif. (California) ranch. A devout Christian, he actively enjoyed his life to the last day, showering love on his extended family, playing golf, and visiting with close friends”. Zimbalist, son of violinist Efrem Zimbalist and acclaimed

ust last year she underwent a double mastectomy after breast cancer returned for a second time, but that didn’t stop Anastacia from fighting and coming out on the other side happy, healthy and back on the music scene where she belongs. Following the lead single ‘Stupid Little Things’ - an exciting and intense track that throws back to the music that ensured the world fell in love with Anastacia - comes the album ‘Resurrection’, her first collection of original songs since the release of ‘Heavy Rotation’ in 2008. First track ‘Staring At The Sun’ showcases the raw passion and drive she possesses, whacking the song out of the ball park and proving she still has that unique vocal and ambition to succeed and get through anything life throws her way.

This continues with ‘Lifeline’, a slower yet just as fantastic track with emotion woven within every lyric.

She strips back the selfnamed ‘sprock’ (soul, pop and rock) sound for ‘I Don’t

opera singer Alma Gluck, became a household name in the U.S. from 1958 by playing private eye Stuart Bailey on 77 Sunset Strip, which ran until 1964. He then stepped into detective shoes once more to play Inspector Lewis Erskine on The F.B.I., which lasted for nine series. He ventured into movies with leading roles in The Chapman Report and Harlow before returning to television. In the 1990s, he most famously voiced Alfred Pennyworth, the butler of Batman, in Batman The Animated Series and The New Batman Adventures. His last movie role was in 2008’s The Delivery.

Want To Be The One’ where she details and explores the idea of a relationship coming to an end, despite reservations about breaking apart from what used to be a loving partnership. Production is done well, and just when you think the song is coming to an end a fastpaced piece of instrumental brings you right back. ‘Evolution’ begins laced with attitude, and as Anastacia sings “it took everything to have to come this far” she’s easily believed. Having life experiences such as the ones she’s had must provide a wealth of opportunities as an artist to use those past pains and troubles for your art, and this is something she does well.

Whilst ‘Pendulum’ could be classed as a little repetitive and not one of the most impressive on offer here, what follows in ‘Stay’ is a beautiful example of what Anastacia can truly do if she puts her voice to the test and pushes her harmonies to the limit. “I’m not ready to go just yet”, she sings, sounding as if she’s

on the edge of tears when the song comes to an end, and I’m right there with her. Once again, the heartstrings are tugged on with ‘Apology’. There’s something about this woman’s tone that is so utterly fascinating, able to pull you in and draw your attention within just moments and keep you right up until the very last second.

Though I would have preferred an upbeat bop to finish off the album, ‘Broken Wings’ isn’t a disappointment. She acknowledges that despite her ‘broken wings’, she’s still able to do anything if she puts her mind to it. She’s somebody you want to root for, even if you’ve never been a fan before. ‘Resurrection’ is not only a testament to Anastacia’s talent, but her willingness to conquer and “rise from the ashes”. She deserves to regain that major success she’s seen in the past, offering an album that reeks of pure honesty, experience and above all, triumph. Anastacia’s ‘Resurrection’ is released May 5.

Berkus marries Jeremiah in historic first ever same sex marriage at New York Public Library

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elebrity interior decorator Nate Berkus has married Jeremiah Brent in a historic New York ceremony. The American Dream Builders host wed the TV personality in a ceremony in front of 220 guests at the New York Public Library on Saturday, according to People. The pair made history as they are the first same-sex couple to hold their wedding at the New York landmark. Berkus wore a suit by J.Crew, while his partner sported Saint Laurent and they exchanged identical gold rings from Van Cleef & Arpels. The ceremony was officiated by Sheri Salata, the president of Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Productions, and the talk show host herself was among guests. Others to attend included parents from both families as well as celebrity chef Rachael Ray; food critic Katie Lee and actress Busy Philipps. Speaking of their

plans for the nuptials, Brent previously told E!: ‘It’s going to be a really sexy wedding ceremony, like really masculine but sexy feel. It’s been really great and been a really fun process for us to blend our aesthetics together and really create this whole moment.’

Berkus, 42, and his partner – who was formerly Rachel Zoe’s personal assistant – got engaged around a year ago in Peru after nine months of dating. Recalling the proposal, Brent, 29, said: ‘We were on a buying trip… in Peru and we went on the top of Machu Picchu and we walked down into this valley temple place and he asked me to marry him.

I fell apart, like full ugly-girl kind of cry.’ The ceremony was followed by a reception which included a set by DJ Mad Marj, as well as a special performance by Estelle of her hit American Boy. The couple have previously

been rumoured to be planning a family together using a surrogate and hoping for a boy. According to the New York Post, Brent was talking of the subject at the Hollywood home of socialite Alex Hitz, where he told guests: ‘I wouldn’t know how to deal with a little girl.’ The seriousness of the design duo’s relationship first came to light when Berkus put his Manhattan home on the market in December 2012. A source said at the time: ‘Nate came to LA, bought a luxury Mercedes and saw a Hollywood Hills home and nabbed it all in the same day.’ The insider added that as The Nate Berkus Show had been cancelled, he had little reason to stay in New York. ‘He’s been telling people now that he isn’t tied down with the show and his Target line has proven successful, he really can live anywhere,’ the source said. ‘Nate is inseparable from Jeremiah.’

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Mayweather wins narrowly against Maidana

Floyd Mayweather Jr., right, connects with a right to the head of Marcos Maidana, from Argentina, in their WBC-WBA wel- England's Amir Khan, right, connects with a hard right to the head of Luis Collazo in their silver welterweight title boxing terweight title boxing fight Saturday, May 3, 2014, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo) fight Saturday, May 3 in Las Vegas. (AP Photo)

LAS VEGAS, MAY 4 (AP): Argentina's Marcos Maidana came close to one of the bigger upsets in recent boxing history on Saturday as he took the fight right up to Floyd Mayweather Jr. for 12 tough rounds, before losing a majority decision.

Mayweather, regarded as the world's best fighter poundfor-pound, retained his unbeaten record, but not by much.

Maidana swarmed all over him from the opening bell and gave him perhaps his toughest fight in a 16-year professional career.

In the end, though, Mayweather got the win — just as he did in his previous 45 fights.

He retained his WBC welterweight title by winning 117-111 on one scorecard and 116-112 on another. A third judge had it

even at 114-114. The Associated Press scored it for Mayweather 115-113.

Maidana threw far more punches, but Mayweather was more accurate as the two battled into the late rounds with the fight still very much in doubt. Cheered on by a large contingent of Argentine fans, Maidana took the fight to Mayweather, who was cut by the right eye in the fourth round by an accidental head butt.

"It was a tough, competitive fight," Mayweather said. "I normally like to go out there and box and move. But he put pressure on me. I wanted to give the fans what they wanted to see so I stood and fought him."

Maidana raised his arms in victory when the final bell sound-

What is plaguing India’s football dream?

PAnAjI, MAY 4 (IAnS): Bad marketing, poor channeling of young talent and selfish administrators continue to plague India's football dream, even as national and international events have created a healthy infrastructure footprint in the country, according to Jamshid Nassiri, an Iranian international footballer who has made India his home.

Nassiri is in Goa as a head scout of the IFB Boca Football Champs programme that aims to handpick 14 young and talented Indian players who will then be trained at Buenos Aires' based Boca Juniors, a football club which has churned out generation after generation of soccer wizards right from Diego Maradona to Gabriel Batistuta to Juan Riquelme and now Carlos Tevez.

"Bad marketing, no proper channelling of development of football from different age groups are

some of the problems. Even administrative groups have selfish interests and when they are approached for an initiative, they are very non-cooperative. Federations have to be more interested to help football grow in India," Nassiri told IANS in an interview on the sidelines a visit here.

A string of national and international games, he said, had created excellent infrastructure, but the management of these resources was poor.

"National Games, Commonwealth Games, Lusofonia Games and others have created excellent infrastructure. The infrastructure is available but once the event has happened, the stadia are often kept locked," he lamented.

In the 1970s, Nassiri landed in India as a student from Iran before he was snapped up along with another colleague by Kolkata's premier East Bengal club.

Khan defeats Collazo in welterweight bout LAS VEGAS, MAY 4 (AFP): British star Amir Khan won a unanimous decision over former champion Luis Collazo in his first fight after moving up to the welterweight division on Saturday. The 27-year-old Khan, who was fighting for the first time after a 12-month layoff, knocked Collazo down three times in the nontitle fight at the MGM Grand Hotel.

Khan looked impressive in the 147-pound (67 kg) division debut, winning on all three judges' scorecards. Two judges scored it 119-

ed, and Mayweather watched pensively from his corner as the scorecards were added up before he was declared the winner.

"I won the fight," Maidana said. "He didn't fight like a man." Punch stats by Compubox showed Mayweather land-

104 while the other had it 117-106. Khan knocked Collazo down for the first time in the fourth round and then twice in the 10th round.

Khan, a former light welterweight world champion, weighed 161 pounds when he stepped into the ring on Saturday, 14 pounds over his weight at Friday's weigh-in. Collazo weighed 16 pounds more than his 147 pound weigh-in weight. The bout was on the undercard of the Floyd Mayweather-Marcos Maidana welterweight unification title fight.

ing 230 of 426 punches to 221 of 858 for Maidana. It was the most punches landed by any fighter against Mayweather in 38 fights where punch stats were compiled. "I couldn't see for two rounds after the head butt," Mayweather said. "After

I could see again it didn't both me. That's what champions do, they survive and adjust."

Maidana had said before the fight he was going to treat Mayweather like any other fighter and go right after him. He did just that, bringing the sellout

crowd at the MGM Grand hotel to its feet as he landed some big overhand right hands to the top of Mayweather's head. "He never hurt me with a punch," Maidana said. "He wasn't that tough, I thought I won."

Maidana complained about being forced to fight with gloves he didn't want to use when the two camps engaged in a standoff over gloves at the rules meeting a day earlier. "If I would have had my gloves I would have knocked him out," Maidana said. "They took away my advantage."

Mayweather, who earned $32 million for the fight, was a 6-1 favorite coming to remain unbeaten. He had picked Maidana over Amir Khan as an opponent and may have been ruing that decision. Mayweather

seemed confused early and unable to adapt to the wild punches thrown by Maidana. It wasn't until the middle rounds that he got into more of a rhythm, hitting Maidana with hooks to the body and right punches to the head.

Still, the fight was in doubt late as Maidana kept coming forward.

With the crowd on its feet in the final round he tried to land big punches, but Mayweather was able to escape most of them.

Maidana, who was cheered by the crowd as he left the ring, said he wanted a rematch, and both promoter Richard Schaefer and Mayweather said he just might get one after nearly pulling off one of the biggest upsets in recent years. "If the fans want to see it again, let's do it again," Mayweather said.

Marc wins Spanish Grand Prix Maria cruises into MotoGP raider Marc Marquez of Spain celebrates his victory on the podium of the Spain's Motorcycle Grand Prix at the Jerez race track on Sunday, May 4, 2014 in Jerez de la Frontera, southern Spain. (AP Photo)

jEREZ DE LA FROnTERA, MAY 4 (AFP): World champion Marc Marquez continued his perfect start to the season by winning the Spanish MotoGP Grand Prix at Jerez on Sunday. The 21-year-old won his 36th Grand Prix in just his 100th GP with seven-time world champion

Valentino Rossi second, just ahead of Marquez's compatriot and Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa.

Marquez, who had won all three previous Grand Prix this season, extended his world championship lead over Pedrosa to 28 points.

He thus became the first

rider since Australian Mick Doohan in 1992 to win the first four races of the year while it was also the first time he had claimed success at the Spanish GP. "It's a special victory because I had never won here before but I managed to pull out a gap on the chasers quite quickly despite

us being at practically the same level," said Marquez.

Marquez had started on pole and was in a class of his own all afternoon in the blistering Andalusian heat.

By the 12th lap he had already built up a four-second lead and after that he merely managed his advantage comfortably until the end of the race.

Behind him there was a great battle brewing between Rossi, who earnt his second podium of the year, and Pedrosa.

Rossi, 'The Doctor', had to use all his 35-years of experience to hold off the charging Pedrosa, a twice former winner in Jerez, on the final corner with the pair going neck and neck.

Rossi's Yamaha teammate, the twice world champion Jorge Lorenzo, had a disappointing afternoon, coming home fourth more than 8sec behind Marquez in his 200th GP and on his 27th birthday.

Madrid second round

Olivier Giroud powers Arsenal to win

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LOnDOn, MAY 4 (AP): Olivier Giroud scored in the first half to give Arsenal a 1-0 win over West Bromwich Albion in the Premier League on Sunday, leaving the Baggies uncertain of their status in the top flight.

Giroud headed home at the near post in the 14th minute, getting in front of Craig Dawson and shrugging off the defender's attempts to hold him back as Santi Cazorla delivered a corner.Arsenal controlled the half from there, getting into a quick passing rhythm and dominating possession.

West Brom resorted to long-range efforts, with midfielder James Morrison launching a 40-yard shot after spotting Arsenal goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny off his line in the first half, but the Arsenal's Olivier Giroud, left, competes for the ball with West Bromwich Albion's Jo- ball went well wide. Graham nas Olsson during their English Premier League soccer match at Emirates Stadium Dorrans' shot from about 20 yards came closer, forcing a in London, Sunday, May 4. (AP Photo)

reaction save from Szczesny in the 32nd.

For Arsenal, the match held little significance because the club had already secured at least a fourth-place finish and a 17th consecutive season of Champions League football after Everton's loss to Manchester City on Saturday. It felt like the home crowd was already looking forward to the summer — a summer of spending they hope — batting around a beach ball in the first half.

The Gunners have a faint hope of finishing in third place, meaning they wouldn't have to play an extra Champions League qualification round at the start of next season. But Chelsea would have to lose its final two matches for that to happen, including Sunday's late kick-off against Norwich, which is the likeliest candidate for the final relegation spot.

Mathematically, West

Brom still faces the threat of going down, sitting four points above the bottom three. But the Baggies will be out of danger if Norwich loses to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge later Sunday. Cardiff and Fulham have already been condemned to play in the League Championship next season.

It was Arsenal's final home game of the season, but the team still has one more match to play in north London — the FA Cup final against Hull at Wembley Stadium on May 17. A win forArsenal would mean a first trophy in nine years after failing to win silverware since lifting the 2005 FA Cup. Abou Diaby returned to the squad for the first time in more than a year after recovering from a serious knee injury. Midfielder Aaron Ramsey missed out with a minor thigh problem.

Russia's Maria Sharapova . (AP Photo)

MADRID, MAY 4 (AFP): Four-time Grand Slam champion Maria Sharapova made light work of the Czech Republic's Klara Koukalova to ease into the second round of the Madrid Open 6-1, 6-2 on Sunday. Sharapova claimed her first title of the year in Stuttgart two weeks ago and continued her return to form after a difficult start to the year to seal victory in little over an hour.

Last year's finalist in Madrid will next face unseeded American Christina McHale in the second round.

It was a more difficult afternoon for fifth seed Petra Kvitova as she need a final set tie-break to overcome Romanian Sorana Cirstea 6-1, 5-7, 7-6(7/4).

The former Wimbledon champion looked well on course for the second round after racing through the opening set, but was then broken four times in the second as the world number 27 levelled the match.

Both women were more stable on serve in the decider as it went to a tiebreak after just one break apiece and Kvitova eventually had too much to set up a meeting with American Varvara Lepchenko.

Elsewhere, 11th seed Ana Ivanovic overcame Madison Keys in straight sets 6-1, 7-6 (7/4), while another American, Sloane Stephens, beat Romanian qualifier Monica Niculescu 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 to also reach the last 32.

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