March 7th, 2015

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The Morung Express

Dimapur Vol. X issuE 63

www.morungexpress.com

“

[ PAGE 8]

My son inspires me every day: Miranda Kerr

By Sandemo Ngullie

”

–German proverb

Women’s special health camps from March 9 to 11 [ PAGE 2]

Dhoni Powers Team India into Quarters

[ PAGE 9]

[ PAGE 12]

Dirty water kills more women than AIDS, diabetes or cancer

[ PAGE 11]

reflections

saturday, March 7, 2015 12 pages Rs. 4

Begin to weave and God will give you the thread

Modi to visit Seychelles, Mauritius, Sri Lanka

nagaland govt takes stock of situation

Dimapur Dc, sP & sr superintendent of central Jail Dimapur suspended

Nagaland State police in process of registering case against rioters Morung Express news Dimapur | March 6

lend him your shoe - he lost his during some athelitic activity in college.

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ED probes into alleged 78 crore in ‘foreign account’

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NEW DELHI, MARCH 6 (TNN): Nudged by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), various agencies, including the Enforcement Directorate, are probing allegations that Nagaland Chief Minister TR Zeliang has stashed away nearly Rs 80 crore in illegal accounts abroad.

Interestingly, the investigations have been triggered by a letter written by CM himself to RBI, refuting the allegations about his ill-gotten wealth, leveled by rebels in Zeliang’s Naga People’s Front (NPF). The RBI has referred his letter to ED among others, sources said. The CM has told RBI that he does not hold any bank account outside India and the “purpose, origin and source” of the funds, it at all it exists, is unknown to him. He requested RBI to carry out necessary investigations into the allegations.

Sources in investigation agencies told TOI that they do have preliminary information regarding certain foreign fund transactions in favour of one Mr Zeliang.

However, it is not clear if it is the chief minister, or someone else with the same name. Preliminary investigations indicate that almost Rs 78.66 crore (Singapore dollars 1,70,08,500) have been transferred to accounts in Hong Kong and Malaysia. The RBI has referred the CM’s request to ED for necessary action under FEMA (foreign exchange management act).

It has also suggested invoking guidelines of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global coalition of governments to counter money laundering and related threats to international financial system. Financial Intelligence Unit could also be involved in the probe, sources said.

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Following the violent turn of events on Thursday, a sense of apprehensive calm returned to Dimapur today. Businesses remained closed for the second day as Cr.PC section 144 was re-imposed on the evening of March 5. The prohibitory order will continue to remain in force till normalcy returns.

“The situation is quite normal (today)… we’ve requisitioned 11 companies of the NAP and 3 from the CRPF,” stated State ADGP, Akheto Sema in Dimapur on Friday evening.

While there was no report of any untoward incident during the day, the ADGP said that the Nagaland Police is in the process of registering a criminal case to investigate the mob violence and the lynching, and trace out the rioters.

Queried how the Nagaland Police will go about the gargantuan task of identifying the culprits from a crowd of hundreds, the ADGP replied that they have video clips and pictures. “Whosoever is guilty will be punished,” he added.

On the question of rumours doing the rounds, further aggravating the already fragile situation, he said that it is very difficult to monitor the spread of hearsay, either online or

through word of mouth.

He added that they are in touch with authorities in Assam to prevent the rumors from causing any untoward situation.

Rumours have meanwhile spread through many multimedia messaging applications, further adding to the sense of uncertainty.

Asked on efforts to clamp the spread of misleading rumours, the ADGP said the Nagaland government has written to the national Computer Emergency Response Team for pre-emptive measure. He further informed that two social media groups have been blocked (till the situation normalizes). However, it was found that members of the two online groups could still access the pages online.

Meanwhile, it was informed that the body of the lynching victim was brought back to Dimapur from Kohima to be handed over to relatives. There was however uncertainty over where the burial will take.

The Nagaland state cabinet today suspended Wezope Kenye as the Deputy Commissioner of Dimapur, Meren Jamir as SP of Dimapur, and B Chuba Phom as Sr Superintendent of Dimapur Central Jail. The CMO informed that the cabinet has subsequently appointed Kesonyu Yhome as Dimapur DC and Shouka Kakheto as ASP to take over the Dimapur SP’s office. The cabinet further took the decision that the persons who had “incited, instigated or encouraged the mob in the process of jail break, the taking out of the accused from judicial custody and in torturing him to death be arrested and prosecuted.” It has directed all DCs and SPs of Nagaland state to “urgently take steps to protect and look after the welfare of the minority communities in their districts and to prevent any untoward happenings.” The cabinet also condoled the deaths of Syed Farid Khan and Inito Swu, and directed that appropriate ex-gratia be paid to the families of the deceased.

With curfew still enforced, the streets of Dimapur wore a deserted look on Friday, March 6. Photo by Caisii Mao

Assam cM demands cBi inquiry

At the same time, the Chief Minister GUWAHATI, MARCH 6 (PTI): Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Friday said the alleged crime committed by the condemned the lynching of an Assamese youth is equally condemnable but law youth in Nagaland for allegedly raping a should have been allowed to take its own girl and termed the incident as “barbaric, course. Gogoi also said that the incident has been taken up at both Chief Ministeheinous and inhuman”.

The opposition All India United rial and Chief Secretary levels. Meanwhile, Democratic Front (AIUDF) too has con- opposition AIUDF President Badruddin demned the incident as “unfortunate” Ajmal said the incident was “unexpected and unfortunate”. and demanded a CBI inquiry into it.

“We demand a CBI inquiry into the in“The manner, in which the youth was dragged out of custody and killed brutal- cident,” he said in a statement. He also said ly by a mob on the streets, is highly con- a delegation under the leadership of party demnable,” Gogoi said in a statement. MP Radheshyam Biswas will be sent to NaDistrict Hospital He termed the act as “barbaric, heinous galand to discuss the issue with the state Dimapur dismayed by and inhuman” and said that no one could government. Besides, the party demanded attack on ambulance take law unto their hands and stern action an ex-gratia of Rs 25 lakh to the deceased In a delayed report, a must be taken against those involved in and sought security to Assamese people in Nagaland, the statement said. district hospital ambu- the “heinous crime”. lance on standby at the Clock Tower junction on that the ambulance’s wind- “even in war zones, medi- mob violence, were treated the evening of March 5 shield was shattered while cal personnel and vehicles in the hospital. 22 were pocame under attack from a the doctor on duty escaped are respected.” licemen while 7-8 of the infrenzied mob. The Medi- with a scratch on the face.

The MS further informed jured were students. cal Superintendent (MS) Expressing concern at that as many as 32 people, For safety reasons, the of the District Hospital said the incident, the MS said, who were injured during the MS said that the injured

one man judicial inquiry Naga Hoho, Muslim Council to probe Dimapur violence Dimapur appeal for peace • Inquiry to be headed by retired Judge Veprasa Nyekha • Report to be submitted within 45 days KOHIMA, MARCH 6 (MExN): The Nagaland state government has instituted a one man judicial inquiry to find out the causes and circumstances leading to the violent events on March 5 in Dimapur. A notification from the Nagaland state Chief Secretary, Pankaj Kumar informed that the inquiry will be carried out by retired District and Sessions Judge, Veprasa Nyekha.

The judicial inquiry will assess the causes and circumstances leading to the incident; the person or group of persons responsible,

including those who incited encouraged or guided the crowd in committing the crime; whether there were any lapses or dereliction of duty on the part of any official or public authority responsible for the maintenance of law and order; whether the incident could have been avoided; and how such incidents may be avoided in future.

The inquiry is required to submit its report to the state government within 45 days, However “if it deems fit” the judicial inquiry may make an interim or final report to the state government before the expiry of the said period.

The state government has assured to provide necessary logistic support in terms of transport, secretarial assistance, accommodation and security to the inquiry as and when required.

DIMAPUR, MARCH 6 (MExN): The Muslim Council Dimapur (MCD) and the Naga Hoho have issued a joint press statement appealing to all sections not to panic over rumors but remain calm and maintain peaceful co-existence. A press note from the President of the MCD, AH Tapadar and Naga Hoho President, P Chuba Ozukum acknowledged that the entire episode “…was a social issue and has no relations with religious or communal issue.” “As in the past, the Nagas and Muslims in Nagaland have been living together in peaceful co-existence with social harmony,” the statement added. It also appealed to “social media to contribute their services towards maintaining peace and tranquility.” Taking cognizance of the current situation in Dimapur, both the organizations held an emergency joint meeting at Hotel Saramati to “take stock of the situation and to prevent further escalation of the situation.”

Protests in Assam; travel advisory issued Morung Express news Dimapur | March 6

Protests were held in at least 3 districts of Assam on Friday following the violent incidents of March 5 in Dimapur. The protests were held in Sivasagar, Jorhat and Karimganj districts of Assam. However, no untoward incident was reported.

Deputy Commissioner of Karimganj, Sanjib Gohain Baruah, informed The Morung Express that protests were held in Bhanga area of Karimganj and a memorandum demanding the arrests of those responsible for the events in Dimapur was submitted. “The whole situation should not be given communal colour,” Baruah asserted.

In Jorhat and Sivasagar districts, protestors burned down effigies of Rajnath Singh and TR Zeliang. Superintendent of Police (SP) Jorhat, Amandeep Kaur, while stating that Assam is under high alert, assured that

adequate security has been put in place.

Media agencies report that the Army has been placed on standby in both Nagaland and Assam. It has been reported that the central government has asked Assam to step up vigil so that no untoward incident takes place along its border with Nagaland.

Travel advisory The Border Peace Coordination Committee (Assam-Nagaland) has issued a travel advisory today in view of recent incidents. The BPCC has advised Nagas to refrain from travelling through Assam for “two-three days until situation normalises.” Meanwhile, the Assam Police have also informed that vehicles from Nagaland should refrain from travelling through Assam. Police sources from Assam informed that there have been unconfirmed reports of an Assam bandh being called for.

Health Dept informs on Swine Flu vaccines DIMAPUR, MARCH 6 (DIPR): The Nagaland state Health Department has advised that HINI flu vaccines should be taken only after consulting a doctor. State nodal officer IDSP Dr. Tiasunep Pongener has through a press release informed that vaccine dosage (intramuscular) to be administered for children 6 months to 35 months is 0.25ml, 2 dose and to be given 4 weeks apart. For children 36 months to 8 years 0.5ml, 2 dose also to be given 4 weeks apart. For people 9 years and above the recommended dosage is 0.5ml single dose, informed Dr Tiasunep. He further disclosed that no case of HINI flu has been reported over the last 72 hours.

AAsA calls for harmony The All Assam Students Association (AASA) has urged the Nagaland state government to “maintain harmony between the locals and the people belonging to other states.”

It further called upon the people “not to call every Barak valley people as illegal Bangladeshi immigrants,” and advised that “documents of the people staying in Nagaland should be verified and if anyone is found to be staying illegally than the government should take the required action.”

A press note from the AASA, while condemning the alleged rape of a college girl in Nagaland and the ensuing violence, informed that it has submitted a memorandum to the Nagaland Chief Minister “asking for the security of the Barak Valley people staying at Nagaland and to take the matter under CBI or NIA investigation.” “Whatever may be the result of the invitation should be kept in front of the people. The real culprit to ignite the violent mob should be apprehended by the government,” stated the AASA. The AASA expressed hope that “everything will be brought under control and people can carry on with their normal life.” policemen were referred to the Police Hospital, NAPTC. Most of the injured civilians were released but 3 were still under supervision in the hospital, while 3

others were referred to other hospitals having Intensive Care Units. It was added that doctors were kept busy all through the night at the Emergency Room.

Dimapur violence condemned

DIMAPUR, MARCH 6 (MExN): Various civil society and political organizations have expressed their shock and concern at the violent events in Dimapur on March 5.

Naga Hoho censures ‘failure’ of govt A press note from the Naga Hoho expressed concern at the failure of the state government agencies in handling the law and order problem and said that huge lapse on the part of the government servants has to be thoroughly and judiciously investigated.

It urged all Nagas to “let the law of the land prevail in all the cases that is being registered with the police and condemned the person(s) taking the law into their own hands.”

It further expressed condolences to the family of the person who was killed during the firing by the police on Thursday. It appealed to all to maintain communal harmony. “We cannot and will not allow any individual or community to take this situation to aggravate the relationships that is being shared with the rest of the world,” it added.

NBCC calls for utmost restraint The Nagaland Baptist Church Council (NBCC) has appealed to “exercise utmost restraint and not to ignite the overheated crisis any further by irresponsible words or actions that may make the situation irredeemable.”

The NBCC cautioned

that the “use of violent means with no regards to the rule of law can only lead to further complication rather than solve problems.” “One man was forced to lose his life. The rest of our society has been forced to see a terrible truth about ourselves,” the NBCC lamented. It asserted that the issue “must be handled with care with appropriate and reasonable methods and not escalate to communal and religious issue.”

At this juncture, the NBCC said that “immediate and long-term consequences that can follow must not be underestimated”. As such, it called upon people to “reach out to one another and inspire one another to create the society that will work and succeed.”

enforcing agencies to restore normalcy. Jamir also urged the state government to “strictly enforce the rule of law and not to spare any individual, group or leaders inciting people to take law into their own hands.”

NPF Noke demands resignation of CM, HM The Naga Peoples’ Front (NPF) led by Noke Wangnao slammed the Nagaland state government for failing to tackle the violent events and called for the resignation of the Chief Minister and the Home Minister. A press note from the party stated that ramifications of the series of incidents “will be enormous” and lamented that the “damage that the incidents have caused to the reputation and image of Nagaland and the Naga NPCC calls for people here and around restoring normalcy Nagaland Pradesh Con- the world is irreparable. We gress Committee (NPCC) are all shamed.”

Full text on Page 5 President, SI Jamir has called upon people to “exercise restraint and avoid es- Don’t politicize calating the situation where issue, says NSF The Naga Students’ unwanted elements will take undue advantage and Federation (NSF), while condemning the violence, the innocents suffer.”

He urged bloggers on has questioned the state social media, especially the government and law enyounger generation to de- forcing agencies in Dimasist from posting provoca- pur district for not taking tive comments, pictures swift measures. It demandand videos “as enough of ed that inquiry into the damage has been caused incident be carried out by the senseless postings of diligently and urged all some irresponsible blog- sections “not to politicize gers that has gone viral on the issue in any manner bethe mainstream media and cause at this juncture, Nahas brought more harm gas need to put our heads together and solve the than good.”

He appealed to all sec- mess which has been cretions to maintain peace ated by vested interested and co-operate with law people.”

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The Morung Express 2 LocaL Women’s special health The Handprint Campaign camps from March 9 to 11 ‘Together a Vision, a Dream, let’s make it a reality’ Dimapur

Saturday

7 March 2015

Kohima, march 6 (mExN): The National Health Mission, Government of Nagaland, will be conducting women’s special health camps from March 9 to 11 to commemorate ‘International Women’s Day’.

The 3-day women’s special health camps will be held in ten District Hospitals of Kohima, Dimapur, Mokokchung, Wokha, Peren, Zunheboto, Longleng, Phek, Mon and Kiphire.

Dr. Nandira Changkija, Mission Director, National

Health Mission, Kohima has informed in a press note that services during the health camps will include Ante Natal Care (ANC), Post Natal Care (PNC), Identification of high risk pregnant women, availability of Referral transport, availability of drugs, consumables and Mother Child Protection (MCP) cards to all beneficiaries, Family Planning services, Promotion of Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) & Janani Suraksha-Shishu Karyakram (JSSK) entitlements and Counselling

services for women in the reproductive age.

In addition, during the health camps, screening for Cancer of the cervix will be conducted in the 3 District hospitals of Kohima, Mokokchung and Dimapur. The NHAK at Kohima will also provide screening for breast cancer during the camp in Kohima.

The National Health Mission, Nagaland appeals women from all walks of life to come and avail the services to be provided during the Women’s Special Health Camps.

SPS Toulazouma conducts awareness campaign dimaPur, march 6 (mExN): St. Peter’s School, Toulazouma, organized an awareness campaign with the theme, ‘Combating desertification, land degradation and drought,’ for its students on February 21 at the school premises.

A press note informed that the resource persons for the campaign were Mairilemang Zeliang, Administrator, and Aekon Phom, Asst Teacher. The resource persons emphasized about the cause, ef-

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fect and measures for combating desertification, land degradation and drought.

The first session was held on the topic, ‘Combating Desertification and Drought’. Resource person Mairilemang said that deforestation is the main cause behind drought and the only solution to combat desertification and drought is to plant more and more trees.

The second session followed with the topic ‘Combating Land Degradation.’

Aekon Phom stated that

land degradation is not only the problem of the country but also a global problem. Stating that 40% of agricultural land is already severely degraded, Aekon maintained that the main cause behind land degradation is less fertility because of loss of nutrients.

A painting competition was held during the third session where 160 students along with teachers participated. Winners were awarded attractive prizes along with certificates.

Kohima, march 6 (mExN): To mark the occasion of the International Women’s week, the Hand print campaign on theme “Together a Vision, a Dream, let’s make it a reality”, was launched by Pankaj Kumar IAS, the Chief Secretary, Government of Nagaland.

A press release issued

by State Resource Centre for Women Nagaland said that the Chief Secretary signed the handprint with a strong message “This is to a bright future for the women in Nagaland and their equal partnership in taking the state forward”.

The Hand Print Campaign was later carried out on March 4 and 5 at the MLA Junction and the New Secretariat junction respectively.

The Handprint Campaign is an initiative of the State Resource Centre for Women Nagaland along the lines of the UN Women’s HeForShe campaign.

HeForShe is a solidarity movement for gender equality that brings together one half of humanity in support of the other half of humanity, for the benefit of all. It aims to engage

men and boys as agents of change for the achievement of gender equality and women’s rights, by encouraging them to take action against inequalities faced by women and girls.

The movement for gender equality was originally conceived as a struggle led only by women for women.

However, in recent years men have begun to stand up in addressing inequalities and discriminations faced by women and girls.

The objective of this campaign was also to appeal to the men to give earnest thought to the issue and through their personal handprint, express their support for the cause of women, in effect, the entire humanity. By giving their individual handprint, each person is taking it on a personal level and articulating what he/she genuinely thinks about the issue. Every individual standing for this cause is another step towards achieving gender equality.

The “Hand print” signifies a call to stop all forms of violence and the orange colour is designated by the United Nations (UNiTE campaign) to symbolize

dimaPur, march 6 (mExN): Unity Village Sümi Baptist Akukuhou conducted a one-day seminar for church workers on March 3 at Phutoi farm, Niuland. The main speaker for the retreat was Rev. Aheto Sema, Mission Promoter, WSBAK. With his rich experience as a Pastor, a translation advisor at BSI, a sincere theologian and a fervent lover of books, Rev. Sema brought out the functioning, administration and financial management in the church set up where both clergy and laity has a role to play.

Teamwork, complimenting each other, trust, character and perseverance are the need of the hour for both laity and clergy for the success and growth of the church, he stated. He further challenged participants of the retreat to have a vision while given an opportunity to serve in the service of the Lord.

The afternoon session was led by P. Zuvito Wotsa, Capt G. Khekavi Zhimo and Tokato K. Yeptho on topics like ‘the working dynamics of the church’, ‘the responsibilities of the leaders’ and ‘the role and responsibilities of the church workers’.

About 60 members participated in the retreat.

Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) Ghathashi block, organized field day on February 25. The programme was organized for the farmers of Ghokimi village. The field day programme was led by ATMA Block Technology Manager (BTM) Hutoka Y. Jakha as resource person. The resource person stressed on groundnut cultivation practices and its post harvest technology. Other Agri and allied farming such as orange, maize and other summer crops were explained to the farmers.

Altogether, 24 farmers attended the field day programme.

a brighter future without violence.

With the increasing trend of violence against women in our State in the form of Sexual abuse, rape, molestation, domestic violence etc, the support received for the campaign from men and women from all walks of life were immense.

As one of the participants of the campaign

moN, march 6 (diPr): In order to strengthen peace and harmony across the two State of Assam and Nagaland, a daylong cultural exchange programme was held at Bagicha LP School compound, Namtola, Assam on February 28 with Deputy Commissioner, Sivasagar V. Mitral, and ADC Tizit Remabomo Odyuo, as special guest.

Speaking on the occasion, the DC Sivasagar and ADC Tizit both called upon the people to maintain peace and harmony in the border for furthering development in the areas. They also appealed to uphold the age old relationship between the two neighboring state.

The rich cultural heritage with colourful traditional attire of the Ahoms and the Nagas were displayed at the program. The highlights of the day long program was marked by friendly football match between Sonari Sub-Division and Tizit Sub-Division, Tug of War by both men and women, Exhibition of food stall and handicrafts from the Self Help Groups of both the state were also displayed.

The DC Sivasagar was accompanied by SP Sivasagar, SDO Sonari, and CO Sonari, while ADC Tizit was accompanied by the CO 6th NAP, Addl.

SP Mon, DCO Mon, SDPO Tizit and EAC Tizit.

NStCB Pfutsero branch new premises inaugurated P f u t s E r o, m a r c h 6 (mExN): The inaugural function of the Nagaland State Co-op Bank Ltd new premises of Pfutsero Branch was held on March 5.

NStCB Managing Director in a press release stated that the branch in Pfutsero branch was opened on February 25, 1980 and during all these thirty-five (35) years, the branch has been catering to the banking needs of the people of the area, especially in agriculture sector.

The Pfutsero branch is techno-driven with Core Banking Solutions (CBS) enabling Any Bank Banking (ABB) through its NEFT/ RTGS facility and other e-delivery channels is being commissioned to enhance banking service for our customers. In his context, the Managing Director has appealed to everyone to bank with NStCB and avail of facilities provided by this only local bank in the State.

T. Nchumbemo Odyuo Addi-

tional Deputy Commissioner, Pfutsero graced the occasion as chief guest, while Vilasa Nakro Registrar of Co-operative Societies, Nagaland Kohima as guest of honour. Wepe Ritse, Additional RCS Nagaland Kohima and owner of the new premises addressed the function and Kekhwengulo Lea Board of Director NStCB representing Phek district chaired the function while Rev Dr. N Chiero, Pastor Pfutsero Town Baptist Church offered the invocation.

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People from different walks of life participates in the Hand Print Campaign which was carried out on March 4 and 5 at the MLA Junction and the New Secretariat junction respectively.

Cultural exchange programme held

Unity Village SBA conducts seminar

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The Managing Director of the Bank Imtilemba Longkumer welcomed all and delivered keynote address and Mhathung Khuvang Branch Manager, Pfutsero Branch pronounced vote of thanks.

Officials from various government departments, NGOs, Public Leaders, Church Leaders, Town Council members, PTCBWU, elders, esteemed customers of the branch, bank officials and public attended the function.

wrote “It’s only together (men & women) that our human civilization will move forward in making a better world.” Another Participant questioned, “God made us all equally so why should we discriminate another person only on ground of sex?” The Secretary, Food and Civil Supplies, Government of Nagaland T. Kiheto Sema wrote, “Women should be

protected at all cost”.

It may be mentioned that the International Women’s day was organised by the State Resource Centre for Women In collaboration with Department of Social Welfare, Nagaland State Social Welfare Board and Department of Women Resource Development on the 4th of March 2015 at the Secretariat Complex, Kohima.

MEx File

Naga Hoho & CONPA meeting rescheduled Kohima, march 6 (mExN): The meeting between the executive members of Naga Hoho and members of the Committee on Naga Political Affairs (CONPA) scheduled on March 7 has been pre-poned to March 6 at Hotel Ura at 11:00 Am. The Communication Cell, Naga Hoho in a press release while informing this expressed regret for the inconvenience.

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Chakhroma Students’ Union informs chumouKEdima, march 6 (mExN): The 2nd Union Assembly for the tenure 2013-2016 of the Chakhroma Students’ Union (CSU) is slated on March 9 at CPO Hall, Chumoukedima at 11 am. A press note issued by Meguo Ratsa, Speaker CSU has requested the attendance of all unit presidents and representatives.

Free anti rabies vaccination at Pughoboto Pughoboto, march 6 (mExN): The SDVO Pughoboto has informed the general public and dog lovers of Pughoboto that a free anti rabies vaccination camp will be held on March 11 from 10:00 am in its office premises, for which all have been informed to avail the facility. SDVO Pughoboto Dr. Meyatoshi Aier informed in a press release that due to limited dose received, the opportunity would be on basis of firstcome-served only

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Nagaland Peace Centre meeting on March 17 Kohima, march 6 (mExN): All the esteemed members of the Governing body of the Nagaland Peace Centre, Kohima that has been informed that a general body meeting will be held on March 17 at 11:00 am in the Conference Hall of the Hotel Japfü, Kohima to discuss about the celebration of golden jubilee of the Nagaland Peace Centre. A press note issued

by Chairman N Theyo and Executive Director, Lhusi Haralu requested all the esteemed members to attend the meeting without fail.

DHE bids farewell to Special Officer

Kohima, march 6 (mExN): Officers and Staff of the Directorate of Higher Education, Nagaland, bade farewell to Special Officer, Ahu Sakhrie in a special programme held in his honour on February 26. A press note stated that the Director, Higher Education, C Khalong Ao in his speech described Sakhrie as honest, dynamic and a

capsule of many talents.

He mentioned that due to the efforts of the Sakhrie, many colleges in Nagaland could be granted no objection certificate by the Department. F.P. Solo, Commissioner & Secretary, Higher & Technical Education in his speech described Sakhrie as a firebrand fighter and appreciated his role in im-

parting quality education in the state. The retiring Special Officer in his farewell speech thanked the department for organising the farewell meet and that he is overwhelmed with all the good wishes.

Recollecting his childhood and past life, he said

by God’s grace he is retiring as a government servant today.

ATMA Dimapur conduct demo on millet and soyabean

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Citizens of Dimapur celebrate Holi, the Hindu festival of colours on March 6. Holi also marks the advent of spring. Photo by Imnawapang Jamir

Kuhuboto, march 6 (mExN): ATMA Dimapur Kuhuboto Block conducted a Training and demonstration on Millet and Soyabean on March 4 at Sunito Village with Toivi Swu, AO & BTT Convenor, Kuhuboto Block as the resource person.

He firstly gave an introduction on the varieties of soyabean. It has been widely grown for its edible oil and is a rich source of protein. Soyabeans are considered a complete protein as it contains all the essential amino acids that must be provided to the human body because of the body’s inability to synthesize them. Various soyabean food products are used for human consumption, including fermented soya, soya beverage, tofu, soya flour etc. it’s a popular food for the majority people of

Nagaland and utilized as a pulse crop and fermented products. He also emphasized on the selection of soil, disease control and pest management.

He also encouraged the participants to grow millets as it involves less labour and can also be stored for more than a year.

Pointing out the economic importance of millet as it has many different varieties with different colours. It is also used in making wine and also used for medicinal purpose like diabetes. Its rich vitamins found in millet such as niacin, folic acid, calcium, zinc, potassium etc. were also made known to the partricipants.

Altogether 35 farmer SHGs participated in the training and demonstration.

Akavi V.Holo, BTM (ATMA) Kuhuboto Block, chaired the programme.

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REgional

The Morung Express

Saturday

7 March 2015

Dimapur

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Leopard attacks 4, killed JorhAT, MArch 6 (ENS): A leopard was hacked to death in Assam’s Jorhat district on Thursday after it injured four persons.

The incident was reported from Bar Ali village in the district, around 450km from here. Some people from Bar Ali village had gone to a riverine area in search of firewood when one of them was attacked by the leopard. On hearing screams, villagers armed with sticks, machetes and other weapons, came rushing to the site and killed the animal.

“The villagers hung the animal’s carcass from a tree. Some of them also took away its nails, teeth, fur and blood,” a local told Express.

Later, the villagers handed the carcass to forest officials, who consigned it to flames after post-mortem.

No arrest had been made. The injured people were admitted to a local hospital. A girl, who lost consciousness on seeing the leopard attack the villagers, has also been admitted to the hospital. In Assam, there have been previous incidents of people killing and feasting on a wild animals.

Junior Engineer found dead inside jeep in Mizoram AizAwl, MArch 6 (PTi): A Junior Engineer (JE) working under the Mizoram Power and Electricity department was found dead inside his jeep near Sailam village on the road between Aizawl and south Mizoram's Lunglei town today. T. Lalthanzama, working at Lunglei, was travelling alone in his new jeep from Aizawl to Lunglei on Wednesday night but did not arrive in Lunglei the next day and was declared as missing, a police official said. The jeep and his body was found in an orchard near Sailam where he apparently met with an accident by running off the road, the official said. The jeep was impounded and the body sent for autopsy.

One arrested with arms hAfloNg, MArch 6 (PTi): One person was arrested with arms from Jatinga railway station in Dima Hasao district, police said today. Three armed miscreants entered the railway station and threatened two railway officers on duty and fired one round from their 12 bore rifle yesterday.

The railway police personnel overpowered one of them, while the rest managed to escape, the police said. Later, the RPF personnel handed over the apprehended youth to Haflong police along with one live cartridge of 12 bore rifle and one cache cover recovered from the scene. The police have launched an operation in the area to nab the two escaped miscreants and investigation is on into the incident.

ASAK militant arrested guwAhATi, MArch 6 (PTi): A militant belonging to Meghalaya-based A'Chik Songna An'Pachakgipa Kotok (ASAK) was arrested and a cache of arms and ammunition seized from Goalpara district by a joint team of Army and Assam Police.

The militant was apprehended near Damra village yesterday during a joint operation by Red Horns division and police following specific information by Eastern Command Intelligence, a defence release said.

The militant was identified, the release said a .22 mm pistol, ammunition and one hand grenade were seized from him, it said. ASAK is a splinter group of the banned GNLA.

(L) A girl, with colour smeared over her face, dances during celebrations marking Holi, in Guwahati. (R) Water falls on the coloured hand of a man, dancing during Holi celebrations in Guwahati on Friday, March 6. Holi, the Hindu festival of colors, also marks the advent of spring. (AP Photo)

Include Kokborok in 8th schedule: Tripura reiterates AgArTAlA, MArch 6 (uNi):Tripura government has reiterated the demand to include Kokborok, a dialect of TibetoBurman group and mother tongue of more than 1.3 million Tripuri population of Northeast in 8th schedule of Indian constitution.

Tripura Tribal welfare minister Aghore Debbarma said here on Thursday that the proposal for inclusion of Kokborok in 8th schedule has been sent

songs at places of worship, including the Shri Shri Govindajee temple at the Palace compound in the city.

Other customs that the people of the region observe are taking out a procession to a local temple, playing with colours and offering prayers to the deity.

ShilloNg, MArch 6 (uNi): The Meghalaya police has said that availability of unauthorised SIM cards of various mobile service providers in the state is posing a serious security threats as they are used by militants and criminals to create immense fear psychosis in the minds of the citizens through extortion SMS and intimidation.

Police said today that various militant groups in Garo Hills region of the state get these SIM cards through their channels and extensively use them to send extortion demands. Police also said that all the militant groups, criminals, extortionists, kidnappers operating in Meghalaya in general and Garo Hills in particular were using mobile SIM cards of various service provid-

The highlight of Yaoshang is the 'Thabal Chongba' dance, where girls and boys form a huge circle holding hands and dance and sing.

The festival also marks the onset of spring and holds mythological importance as the triumph of good over evil.

HPC (D) ultras fire at police outpost AizAwl, MArch 6 (PTi): Suspected members of the Manipur- based Hmar People's Convention (Democrats) fired at a police outpost in Khawlian along the Mizoram-Manipur border last night.

Deputy Inspector General of Police, LT Hrangchal, said the militants fired several rounds at the police outpost and fled as the policemen retaliated.

There was no casualty or injuries as a result of the firing, which lasted for about 10 minutes, said Hrangchal.

"We had prior information that HPC(D) militants were coming to Khawlian village to create trouble and had instructed the police there to beef up security and intensify patrolling," he said.

The enhanced security foiled the ploy of the insurgents and, apparently in frustration, they fired upon the police post from a distance, he added.

A platoon of the second India Reserve Battalion has now been deployed at the outpost.

Chapchar Kut celebrated in Mizoram AizAwl, MArch 6 (PTi): Chapchar Kut, the most important traditional festival of the Mizos was observed across Mizoram today with the biggest celebration being held at the Assam Rifles ground here.

Exuberant performers danced to the tune of typical Mizo songs at the festival celebrations while traditional dances like Cheraw, Sarlamkai and mass dance called 'Chai' were performed by different cultural troupes.

Ethnic Mizos from neighbouring states and countries like Myanmar and Bangladesh also participated in the celebrations in Aizawl where Taiwan's senior diplomat,

foreigners and domestic tourists from different states also took part.

Traditional costume parade, exhibit of Mizo dresses through the years was also held.

State Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla was the 'Kut Pa' or father of the festi-

timent of the people of the ficial language in 1979. tural heritage. But, it could region,” Debbarma said.

Tripura was ruled by not flourish to that extent He, however, pointed Kokborok speaking roy- due to inadequate policy framework of the Union 'Kokborok is one of the rich languages by Government.

Like Kokborok hunits treasure of folklore, folktale, voca-bu- dreds of dialects of distinct minority linguistic groups lary & cultural heritage' in India could not develout that a large number of al dynasty for more than oped,’ Mr Debbarma said. indigenous inhabiting of 1300 years.

He also stated that the Tripura, Mizoram and As‘Though Kokborok is government in Tripura sam had been speaking one of the rich languag- has set up a separate direcKokborok and Left Front es in eastern India by its torate for development of government in Tripura had treasure of folklore, folk- Kokborok and other minorecognised Kokborok as of- tale, voca-bulary and cul- rity languages under the

Police orders crackdown on 'SIM card menace'

Manipur celebrates Yaosang iMPhAl, MArch 6 (PTi): Manipur on Friday saw the beginning of the five-day sports festival Yaosang , with torch rallies in the city.

During the festival, Manipuri vaishnavite elders traditionally perform the traditional 'Holi Pala' and 'Eshei' singing devotional

several times form Tripura Legislative Assembly, Government of Tripura and Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous Council but these did not yield any result yet.

“CPI-M MP from Tripura Jitendra Choudhury has raised the issue in the parliament yesterday seeking attention of the central government and we hope Narendra Modi led government will consider the demand to recognise the sen-

val while Art and Culture Minister R Romawia and Chung Kwan Tien, senior diplomat of Taiwan were the 'host' and guest of honour respectively.

Chapchar Kut was also celebrated in all the district headquarters and many villages.

ers which are pre-activated on fictitious names from Dimapur, Agartala, Imphal and Assam.

During the review meeting with the Superintendents of Police (SPs) in Garo Hills, Director General of Police (DGP), Rajiv Mehta has directed them to conduct raids on all the shops where these pre-activated mobile SIM cards are sold across the counters.

Drawing special and immediate attention to the 'mobile menace' in Meghalaya, the DGP has also directed all the SPs to organise special and intensive drive against sellers of black SIM cards activated from Assam, Nagaland, Manipur and Tripura and to take up cases against the sellers under appropriate sections of In-

formation Technology Act and other provisions of law. In the past, many prominent political leaders, government servants and businessmen, received threats and extortion SMS from Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA), and other militant groups using these SIM cards.

When police verified the Subscriber Detail Records (SDR) of these SIM cards, all the addresses of these SIM cards were either from Dimapur or Imphal.

When the matter was taken up with Dimapur Police and Imphal Police, they expressed their inability to locate the address of the subscriber of these SIM cards as all these addresses given and photos provided were fictitious and false, the sources added.

GOVERNMENT OF NAGALAND

DIRECTORATE OF TECHNICAL EDUCATION NAGALAND:: KOHIMA

NO.DTE/ESTT-153/2010-11/7912

/Dt. Kohima, the 5th March. 2015.

NOTIFICATION Application are invited from students having Diploma in Electronics & Communication Engineering under State council for Technical Education (SCTE) Nagaland, for undergoing one year practical Training as Technician Apprentice under Doordarshan Maintenance centre, Dimapur & Tuensang. Total number of seats=4.

Interested candidates may submit application along with self attested photo copies of their Mark sheets (both final & overall) and two recent colour passport sized photographs to the Office of the undersigned from 9th to 17th March 2015.

(Er. Arjun Singh) Addl. Director

NSF Clarifies on 5th March Incident The Naga Students’ Federation (NSF) makes this statement in order to clarify the doubts and misconception of the general public in regard to the 5th March incident.

On 4th March, after hearing the news that agitators have gathered in DC office Dimapur, demanding that culprit should be handed over to them, the NSF officials went down to dimapur to pacify the situation and requested the agitators to let NSF take over the issue, which they refused, rather they demanded that a rally should be held at city tower junction at 9 am on 5th March initiated by the NSF, to which NSF agreed and agitators.

Eventually the NSF agreed and took initiative of the peaceful rally.

During the rally, the NSF have strongly spelled out that the proposed peaceful rally was not against the Muslim community nor against genuine Indians but it was to show our resentment against the rape of a Naga girl by one Syed Farid Khan. The NSF president in his speech has told that Nagas will raise voice against such dastardly act of rape but not by taking law into our hands. After the rally was over, chairperson of the rally even announced that everyone should to go to their respective places as the curfew was relaxed from 7am to 11am specifically for the proposed peaceful rally and the 144 Cr PC could be reinforced anytime. The NSF regrets that this ugly incident could have avoided if the agitators have listen to the plea of the NSF. The NSF is not blaming any individual or group as this is not the time to point fingers at each other nor justifies the effort put by the Federation to pacify the situation but, the NSF is just clearing the misconception of the general public from within and outside the state of Nagaland who are having misconception that the action of the agitators after the peaceful rally was backed by NSF. Further, the NSF sincerely appeals to all section of Naga society, particular the students’ community to restraints themselves from doing anything against the wishes of the people which will do further damage to our society and to Naga people.

Sd/Naga Students’ Federation

Depar-tment of Education. And Kokborok is being taught now in Tripura, as one of the language subjects up to degree level and Tripura University has also intro-duced short-term course in Kokborok.

As many as five top Indian universities in Mumbai, Karnataka and Delhi have also started short-term Kokborok learning course recently with the initiative of Tripura Governor P B Acharya, he added.

4

Dimapur

businEss

Saturday 7 March 2015

The Morung Express

Government faces potential clashes with RBI over who decides rates

MuMbai/New Delhi, Marc 6 (reuters): Having agreed this week to formally adopt inflation targeting as a guiding star for monetary policy, India’s government and central bank remain at odds over how crucial decisions are made.

Both sides support the setting up of a Monetary Policy Committee, as first officially proposed in 2014 when a different government was in power, and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan was just four months into the job. But, say officials with knowledge of the various proposals, the two sides disagree over everything else -- the size of the committee, its composition and whether the central bank chief would have

the final say, in the form of a veto. “There is no convergence,” said one senior policymaker familiar with the issues.

Rajan triumphed this week by binding Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 10-month-old government to a monetary strategy built around inflation targeting, following a trend at other major central banks in both developed and emerging market economies.

And on Wednesday, just days after the government presented its first full budget, the RBI unexpectedly lowered its policy rate for the second time this year, backing efforts to revive growth as inflation cools.

The RBI governor, who takes advice from his deputies and a panel of external

advisers, said the external advisers were not consulted for the latest rate cut. Going forward, Rajan, a defender of central bank independence and former International Monetary Fund chief economist, will have to seek common ground with a government that wants its own appointees to have a role in deciding rates.

“Conflict between the RBI and finance ministry cannot be ruled out,” said one finance ministry official.

Currently, there appears to be harmony on the big issues. After ministers welcomed Wednesday’s RBI rate cut, Rajan gave cautious support for the 2015/16 budget presented

by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley days earlier. “This is

a good beginning and we are going to be watchful,” Rajan said.

Holding onto operational independence could be easier for Rajan when things are going comparatively well. For now inflation is falling, the current account deficit is nowhere near the parlous state it was in 2013, the rupee is stable, and the economy, while weak in parts, is picking up momentum.

Politics of committee-making Monetary policy committees have become the norm among major central banks in the world, but how one would work in India is still uncertain, as officials have only held preliminary discussions of proposals.

The government will need to pass through parliament an amendment to the RBI Act to clear any changes to the central bank’s objectives, officials said.

Any signs of government influence in the central bank’s decisions would worry investors, given India’s history of high spending, which if accompanied by low interest rates could lead to a surge in inflation and deepening debt problems.

“A government’s active role in monetary policymaking risks undermining the central bank’s independence and might result in conflict of interests in terms of broader economic priorities,” said Radhika Rao, an economist at DBS in Singapore.

Investors recognise the merits of reducing the influence of a single individual, even one as trusted as Rajan, and would welcome change at an institution regarded as conservative and hierarchical.

But they wouldn’t want to see India’s central bank coming under the kind of political pressure suspected of taking place in South Korea and Indonesia, for example, or suffering a controversy like one presently gripping Turkey.

Although the RBI is not statutorily independent, as the governor is appointed by the government, it currently enjoys broad autonomy in setting rates.

Things could be different once an MPC is established.

A panel appointed by

the central bank has proposed a five-member committee, composed of the RBI Governor, the deputy governor, a central bank executive director and two external members picked by the central bank.

A government-appointed commission, however, has recommended a seven-member panel composed of the RBI Governor, an executive member of the RBI board, along with five external members picked by the government, of which two would be selected in consultation with the RBI. In addition, the government would send a nonvoting representative to policy meetings. The commission also recommends that the RBI governor gets veto power over the com-

mittee’s decisions though it should be followed by a public statement.

Some government officials oppose giving the governor veto power, however, while many in the RBI view it as essential if government-appointees are included in the committee.

“If internal (RBI) members are in majority, there is no need for governor to have veto power. If external powers have majority, governor should be given veto power. Otherwise, the central bank’s independence will be compromised,” the policymaker familiar with the RBI’s discussions said.

Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian declined to address the veto issue when asked by reporters: “We haven’t got to that stage yet.”

Smart shopping Wear this sticker to make calls, listen to music Fifteen crore Aadhar cards linked with bank accounts on the rise MuMbai, March 6 (ageNcies): A steep upward trend in e-commerce propelled by expediency has seen online purchases made through mobile phones in India double over the last two years.

An Online Shopping survey 2014 by MasterCard, covering 14 countries across Asia Pacific, showed that China continued to lead the chart among mobile shoppers with 70.1 per cent of respondents polled having used their device to make online purchases. It was followed by India (62.9 per cent), Taiwan (62.6 per cent), Thailand (58.8 per cent) and Indonesia (54.9 per cent).

The report on the online shopping habits of respondents, includes interviews with 7,000 respondents aged between 18-64 years from 14 markets.

India ranked second with 81.2 per cent of respondents accessing the internet for online shopping while China leads with 86.6 per cent. The MasterCard survey found that 95 per cent of Indian respondents, have access to the internet through with mobile phone.

The most compelling reasons for driving smartphone shopping in India were the ability to shop on the go (47.7 per cent), the growing availability of apps that makes it easier to shop (45.3 per cent) and the convenience (38.1 per cent).

Mobile phones/mobile gadget apps (28.8 per cent) topped the list of items purchased through smartphones, followed by tickets for cinema/movie theatres (26.7 per cent) and clothing/fashion accessories (24 per cent).

Further, for online transactions, the most common payment methods used are debit cards and cash although new mobile technologies are gaining traction in the region.

“Digital payment solutions like mobile banking apps and digital wallets will go a long way to further enrich the purchasing experience for the ever-evolving consumer,” Vikas Varma, Area Head South Asia, MasterCard, said in a statement. “The survey shows that there is a strong need to provide not only secure, but also convenient payments solutions as consumers move to a more digital and sophisticated lifestyle.”

loNDoN, March 6 (iaNs): Scientists have developed touch-sensitive stickers that can be worn on the skin and can control mobile devices like phones and music players.

Depending on the type of skin sticker used, applying pressure to the sticker could, for example, answer an incoming call or adjust the volume of a music player. The stickers act as an input space that receives and executes commands and thus controls mobile devices.

“The stickers allow us to enlarge the input space accessible to the user as they can be attached practically anywhere on the body,” said Martin Weigel, a PhD fellow at Saarland University. The ‘iSkin’ approach enables the human body to be-

come more closely connected to technology. Users can also design their iSkin patches on a computer beforehand to suit their individual tastes. “A simple graphics programme is all you need,” said Weigel.

One sticker, for instance, is based on musical notation, another is circular in shape like a Long Play (LP) record.

The silicone used to fabricate the sensor patches makes them flexible and stretchable.

“The music player can simply be rolled up and put in a pocket,” said lead researcher JurgenSteimle.“Theyarealsoskinfriendly, as they are attached to the skin with a bio-compatible, medical-grade adhesive. Users can therefore decide where they wanttopositionthesensorpatch

_

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 # 3158

MuMbai, March 6 (iaNs): The will be one of the largest in the world,” National Payments Corporation of In- Hota said.

He said the extent of leakage predia on Friday announced linking of 15 crore Aadhar cards with various bank vented due to this unique system would be visible on completion of runaccounts in India.

“NPCI, the umbrella organization ning the scheme for about a year.

In April 2009, the NPCI was set up for all retail payments system in India, reached a major milestone of success- with the core objective of consolidating fully linking 15 crore bank accounts and integrating the multiple payment with Aadhar number,” NPCI Managing systems into a nationwide, uniform Director and CEO A.P. Hota said here. and standard business process for all The current focus is on linking the retail payment systems for facilitating bank accounts of 17 crore DBTL ben- an affordable payment mechanism to eficiaries of Aadhar numbers by June achieve financial inclusion.

Since then, NPCI has completed 30 this year, he added.

“It is expected that soon all benefi- several payment system projects inciaries of all types of government sub- cluding ATM switching, mobile paysidiaries and benefit transfers will be ments, cheque truncation system, PoS brought under the linkage programme. switching, 24x7 remittance system Such a framework of electronic benefit called IMPS, RuPay and the Aadharand how long they want to wear transfer would not only be unique, but based payments. it,” Steimle added.

In addition to controlling music or phone calls, the iSkin technology could be used for many other applications. For example, a keyboard sticker cheNNai, March 6 (ageNcies): Six Indians find place in Forbes top-50 could be used to type and send list of ‘Asia’s Power Businesswomen 2015’. A businesswoman from Chennai too figures in this illustrious list. messages.

Akhila Srinivasan, Managing Director, Shriram Life Insurance Company Ltd., Currently the sensor stickjoins the list that includes leading names in the banking field such as Arunders are connected via cable to a computer system. According hati Bhattacharya, Chairman and Managing Director of State Bank of India, and to Steimle, in-built microchips Chanda Kochhar, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of ICICI Bank.

The other three are: Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Founder, Biocon; Shikha Sharmay in the future allow the skin-worn sensor patches to ma, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Axis Bank; and Usha Sangcommunicate wirelessly with wan, Managing Director of LIC of India.

Forbes recognises 50 powerful businesswomen in Asia, who are driving other mobile devices.

The researchers will pres- change across diverse industries. Akhila Srinivasan holds a Ph.D. in Economics, ent their project at the presti- focusing on micro-credit for women entrepreneurs. Under her leadership, the gious Special Interest Group Shriram Group set up the Shriram Foundation in 1993. on Computer-Human InterShe started in truck financing, working her way up until in 2005 she launched action (SIGCHI) conference Shriram Life. She is the only woman on the board of Shriram Capital, holding in April in Seoul, South Korea. company for Shriram Group.

6 Indian women make it to Forbes list

DAILY CROSS WORD

CROSSWORD # 3168

Answer Number # 3157

DIMAPUR Civil Hospital:

STD CODE: 03862 232224; Emergency229529, 229474

Metro Hospital:

227930, 231081

Faith Hospital:

228846

Shamrock Hospital

228254

Zion Hospital:

231864, 224117, 227337

Police Control Room

228400

Police Traffic Control

232106

East Police Station West Police Station

227607 232181

CIHSR (Referral Hospital)

242555/ 242533

Dimapur hospital

224041, 248011

Apollo Hospital Info Centre:

230695/ 9402435652

Railway:

131/228404

Indian Airlines

229366

Nagaland Multispe- 248302, cialty Health & 09856006026 Research Centre

W

O

R

Hematology BACTEREMIA CENTRIFUGE HEMOLYSIS CREATININE COUMADIN PALPATE ICTERIC SYNCOPE PATENCY TRANSFIXION PRANDIAL POLYCYTHEMIAVERA DICOUMAROL AMYLASE THROMBOPHLEBITIS HEMOCONCENTRATION SCLEROSED SEPTICEMIA EDEMA BLOODCULTURE LUMEN DYSCRASIA HYPERCHROMASIA PHAGOCYTOSIS EOSINOPHILS ANISOCYTOSIS GLUCOMETER LEUKOCYTES MACROPHAGE SERUM SEROLOGY PLASMA

D

E V A R N O V C P E K H T V Y N E M U L

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

K H A V D E G U F I R T N E C K O A A L

S

A A R P Z G P K B L O O D C U L T U R E

M G M O L Y Z A N H I R A U Y D N P E O

E

S M W E M A G P N X F I B C G I W A T S

A A A A D B P O I I S C Y J H C N T E I

L C I I I E O F L A S T O Y Y O L E M N

A

P R M C I M S P R O H O P U D U P N O O

T O E T H N E C H E R E C M M M O C C P

K P R E A M S C M L R E D Y U A O Y U H

R

A H E R C Y G I I C E G S X T R D B L I

M A T I D F A N H T A B P F N O E I G L

Y G C C R V D R L G P V I Z E L S S N S

C

L E A H E M O C O N C E N T R A T I O N

A J B R O M F P J R R X S L I V F Y S U

S L A W A F L E U K O C Y T E S F F P S

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E E U S C L E R O S E D Q U V P S A I G

O S I S O T Y C O G A H P R A N D I A L

G A E N I N I T A E R C D O X R A J G S

ACROSS

1. Mommies 6. Resorts 10. Competent 14. Excuse 15. South American country 16. Urgent request 17. Paths 18. Part of a foot 19. Legumes 20. Involving three parties 22. Overhang 23. Former Italian currency 24. Jubilant 26. Defrost 30. Excavated 31. Neither ___ 32. Ow! 33. Away from the wind 35. Scruffs 39. Lowborn 41. Mogul 43. Apprehensive 44. Cold-shoulder 46. Hint 47. Estimated time of arrival 49. Antlered animal 50. Arab chieftain 51. Bowman 54. A period of discounted

prices 56. Western tie 57. Genius 63. Brother of Jacob 64. Hodgepodge 65. Cowboy sport 66. Focusing glass 67. Lion sound 68. Blatant 69. Being 70. Cravings 71. Interprets written material

DOWN

1. Kiln-dried grain 2. Winglike 3. Short skirt 4. Cain’s brother 5. Rope fiber 6. Balls 7. Aristocracy 8. District 9. Glum 10. Visible aspect 11. Cry plaintively 12. Depart 13. Alleviated 21. Related to tides 25. Not short 26. Hard work 27. Large

28. Skin disease 29. Brothel 34. Imitators 36. Inside of your hand 37. Decorative case 38. Clairvoyant 40. 8 bits of data 42. Foot joint 45. A man’s high tasseled boot 48. Arsenal 51. Poplar tree 52. Thorny flowers 53. Tribes 55. Mistake 58. Maguey 59. Relocate 60. Bright thought 61. Egghead 62. Specks Ans to CrossWord 3167

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

STD CODE: 0370 100/2244279 2222222 2222111 2222952 2222916 2243339 2224202 08974997923

DIMAPUR: 03862 232201/ 101 (O) 9436017479 (OC) CHUMUKEDIMA: 03862 282777/101 (O) 9856158740 (OC)

MOKOKCHUNG: 0369 2226225/ 101 (O) 9436012949 (OC) PHEK: 8414853765 (O) 9862130954(OC) ZUNHEBOTO: 03867 280304/ 101 (O) 9856156876 (OC) TUENSANG: 8414853766 (O) 8414853519 MON: 03869 251222/ 101 (O) 9436208480 (OC) KipHire: 8414853767 (O) 8974304572 (OC)

CHILD WELFARE COMMITTEE Toll free No. 1098 childline

MOKOKCHUNG:

KOHIMA: 0370 2222952/ 101 (O) 9402003086 (OC)

WOKHA: 03860 242215/101 (O) 9862039399 (OC)

Chumukedima Fire 282777 Brigade Nikos Hospital and 232032, 231031 Research Centre

KOHIMA

FIRE STATIONS

STD CODE: 0369

Police Station 1:

2226241

Police Station 2 :

2226214

Civil Hospital: Woodland Nursing Home:

2226216 2226263

Hotel Metsüpen (Tourist Lodge):

2226373/2229343

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

CURRENCY EXCHANGE CURRENCY NOTES

222246 222491

BUY(Rs)

SELL(Rs)

US Dollars Sterling Pound Hong Kong Dollar Australian Dollar Singapore Dollar Canadian Dollar Japanese Yen

60.67 93.07 7.57 47.36 44.45 48.46 50.39

63.64 97.63 8.44 49.72 46.65 50.87 53.67

Euro

67.72

71.04

Thai Baht Korean Won New Zealand Dollar Chinese Yuan

1.81

2.02

0.0535

0.0597

45.76

48.05

9.35

10.42

LOCAL

The Morung Express

Saturday 7 March 2015

Dimapur

5

Racket of arms licence State BJP concerned over ‘total breakdown’ of law & order Appeals all to maintain peace from Nagaland busted NEW DElhi, march 6 (ThE hiNDu): The Delhi Police Special Cell on Thursday claimed to have busted a racket of arms licence issued on the basis of fake and forged documents without police verification from Nagaland with the arrest of six such licence holders and two agents.

During the investigation, it was discovered that several residents of Delhi had obtained arms licence from Nagaland on the basis of fictitious documents before utilising these to purchase arms and ammunition from different dealers in Delhi and even some ordinance factories, said Rajiv Ranjan, Deputy Commissioner of

Police (Special Cell).

“We undertook an extensive drive to gather information on such arms licencees, who had purchased arms and ammunition from dealers or gun houses in the NCR. The investigation revealed that a large number of residents of Delhi had procured such licence issued by the Dimapur Administration in Nagaland,” DCP Ranjan said.

He said that as per the Ministry of Home Affairs guidelines, no arms licence can be granted without police verification, which includes antecedents of the applicant, assessment of threat, and other preconditions.

In the present case, he

said, such arms licence holders had no threat to their lives; rather those who had been involved in criminal cases were themselves a threat. All those arrested were, he said, found to have been involved in criminal cases, but had succeeded in procuring arms licence from Nagaland.

“The seized arms licences are found to have been issued by the office of the District Magistrate Dimapur (Nagaland) with “All India” validity. However, an arms licence for All India validity can be granted after seeking prior concurrence of the MHA with full justification in deserving cases only,” Ranjan said.

The first men's camping of St. Paul's Parish Church was held under the theme "Towards greater faith" from February 26 to 28 at Hegeilulo. The resource persons were Rev. Fr. Kusum Kant Samir Toppo, Parish Priest, St. Paul Church Peren; Rev. Fr. Philip Mhonchumo, Principal, ASHSS, Peren; Paunam Mark, Local Catechist; and Itingngau Paul, Touring Catechist.

RNPO slams engineer’s killing Dimapur, march 6 (mExN): The Rongmei Naga People’s Organization has expressed strong “displeasure” over the brutal killing of BSNL telecom engineer, GM Rongmei, by an “undisclosed miscreant” on March 1 at Naga Gaon Colony, Signal Bosti, Dimapur.

The RNPO General Secretary, Gwangphun in a press note stated, “Whatever and however severe the crime the deceased might have committed, he must be given a chance to trial, prove and dealt as per the laws. Killing without a trial is too inhumane and not acceptable by act of laws and human rights in today’s civilization.”

“Let the responsible person for the crime come out and admit, justify and seek the forgiveness of the deceased family and the society that God may forgive and save him from the wrathful vengeance,” it added.

The RNPO further conveyed heartfelt “grieve and consolation” to the bereaved family on behalf of all the Rongmei people of Manipur, Nagaland and Assam and elsewhere and prayed for strength and solace during their dark moments.

Dimapur, march 6 (mExN): The Nagaland State BJP unit has expressed concern at the “total breakdown” of law and order in Dimapur over the alleged rape and stated the “complacent attitude” of the State Government and “complete failure” of the District administration and Police in dealing with the situation is seriously viewed.

While condemning the rape incident, and also understanding the anger of the public, the BJP in a press statement said it was unfortunate that the protestors took the law in their own hands. “The party is of the view that no one is above the law, any criminal

and not to spread rumours

offence committed should be dealt with as per the law of land that prevails and one should not take the law in its own hand,” stated the release issued by K James Vizo, General secretary and Spokesman, BJP Nagaland.

The party further appealed to all sections of people to maintain peace and harmony and at the same time urged against spreading of rumours, in order to avoid repercussions “which will be much more damaging.”

Meanwhile, the par-

NSCN (IM) responds to NSCN (K) Dimapur, march 6 (mExN): Responding to the March 1 press statement of NSCN (K), which had questioned the actions of NSCN (IM) for punishing three NSCN (K) cadres, namely Manshah, Kepwang and Honkai for “indulging in anti national activities despite several warnings”, NSCN (IM) today stated that “punishment of such nature are unwillingly forced upon us as they continue to defy and challenge, posing a serious concern to peace and tranquillity in that areas."

In a rejoinder, NSCN (IM) stated that the three “habitual offenders” were duly released on February 23 after signing a bond of agreement in the presence of their relatives, the Wangla village Angh, Chairman and GB representatives. According to the release, they were released with the conditions that: “They shall not involve in any anti-national activities; They shall not involve in any anti-social activities; They shall not join to any reactionary forces/groups in the future; And that, they shall

State BJP party had organized a dharna at Dimapur railway station demanding to remove the illegal immigrants of Bangladesh from the State. And, again in 2004, the party submitted a memorandum through the then Kohima Deputy commissioner Zhaleo Rio demanding for a detention camp in Nagaland to deport the illegal Bangladeshi

MEx FILE DAYO meeting today Dimapur, march 6 (mExN): The office of the Dimapur Ao Youth Organisation (DAYO) has convened an emergency meeting along with the unit presidents at its treasurer’s residence on March 7, 2:00 pm onwards. Therefore, DAYO president, K Longri Imchen and assistant general secretary, Meyatoba in a press release have requested all the members to attend the meeting positively.

District BJP presidents informed Dimapur, march 6 (mExN): As directed by the national Convener, Maha Sampark Abhiyan (MSA), a BJP mega contact programme for membership drive, Dr. Saroj Pandey, the district BJP presidents in Nagaland have been asked to nominate two BJP members to be appointed as district Convener and Co-convener and onward submission to national Convener.

Members with knowledge of social media will be preferred, informed a press release issued by MSA state convenor, Dr. K Hoshi and co-convenor, Makuran Rongmei. The nomination letter should reach the state convenor and co-convenor on or before March 7 without fail through phone call, SMS or Whatsapp to 9862980383/ 9774594635.

NPCC joint meeting Kohima, march 6 (mExN): There will be a joint meeting of NPCC Executive Committee members, Political Affairs Committee (PAC) members and CLP members on March 9 (Monday) at 11:00 am in Congress Bhavan, Kohima. Therefore, NPCC general secretary (admin) has requested all members concerned to attend the said meeting. Separate notice will not be served to individuals, he added.

OCYO condemns molestation Participants with ATMA officials.

KiKruma, march 6 (mExN): The Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA), Phek, Kikruma block conducted Kisan Ghostis and demonstrations for farmers at

Chetheba, K. Bawe and Kikruma villages from February 26 to 28.

The demonstrations covered topics such as Soil Fertility Management, Crop Health Management, Bor-

deaux Paste Preparation, Mulching Method, SRI nursery bed preparation and IPM on vegetable crops.

Resource persons were Imti (SDAO Pfutsero), Convenor, Kikruma block;

NPF Noke slams state government

T

remain home arrest for the period of two years.”

In case of breach of the signed agreement, NSCN (IM) may initiate any actions or may impose Rs. 5 lakh as fine, the rejoinder added.

Further, NSCN (IM) apprised the PRO of NSCN (K), who had issued the press statement, that “unless he is protecting and encouraging the ever mushrooming of thugs in the Naga society, one shall be more careful before jumping into self righteous and hollow conclusion.”

ATMA Kikruma conducts Kisan Ghostis and demo

Public SPace

he NPF party and Legislators under the leadership of Noke Wangnao and G.Kaito Aye are compelled to issue this statement on 2 issues which are threatening their life and security of the State.

1. We condemn the rape of a young girl that reportedly took place on 23 February, 2015. The accused, Syed Farid Khan, was arrested by police and had been forwarded to judicial custody for further investigation was being lodged at the State’s Central Jail in Dimapur. We also hang our heads in shame in condemning the incidents that led to the lynching and murder of the accused and the manner in which the mobs were allowed to take the law into their own hands and carry out a gruesome murder that has done immeasurable damage to the image and reputation of entire Naga society all over the world.

2. The rape incident had created a series of law and order problems where shops, business establishments and properties were vandalised and destroyed by mobs. The situation was worsening by the hour and there was anticipation amongst every section that the overall situation was about to explode. However, the State Government continued to sleep over the matter and totally failed to

ty also expressed serious concern over the massive infiltration of illegal Bangladeshis to North East and in particular to Nagaland.

It appealed to the Government of India and State Government to formulate suitable law to eradicate the illegal Bangladeshis before things go beyond control.

The release also mentioned the BJP President Dr M Chuba Ao recalling that in 1992 when PB Acharya (Present Governor) was the NE-BJP Incharge, the

immigrants, but in both the cases, the Government of Nagaland failed to take up the matter seriously, it added.

Further, the party suggested to the authorities concerned not to randomly issue PRC (Permanent Residence Certificates), ILP (Inner Line Permits) and trade licenses etc. without proper verification. At the same time, it cautioned the people of Nagaland to be careful in employing or renting their land/ house/ vehicles to the illegal Bangladeshi immigrants.

carry outs its duties in the most miserable manner.

3. No precautionary measures to improve the situation were taken by the government, the security placements in the State Central Jail, which is supposed to be the topmost security prison of the State where even NSA detainees are kept, was neglected.

144 CRPC was promulgated only on paper and not enforced in reality. T.R Zeliang Chief Minister and Y.Patton Home Minister mysteriously stayed away from the issue and did not even issued even a single appeal, leave along take precautionary steps.

4. Why did not the Chief Minister take the matter seriously and call the students community, the civil society leaders and representatives of women’s groups and win over their confidence ahead of the protests that had been planned. Instead the 144 CRPC was relaxed to allow the protest rally to take place, despite the volatile situation and the mob fury that had taken place the previous day. Why was the mob allowed to break into the jail and why was the accused handed over to the mob allowing lawlessness to take over.

5. The accused was stripped naked and paraded on the National Highway for several kilometres while the State Govern-

ment’s representatives helplessly looked on. He was lynched to death and his dead body was hung on the town square with thousands of people clicking photos and streaming it to social media. The shocking news, gruesome images and gory videos have been covered in all national print and electronic media.

Even international news agencies like the BBC and UK Mail, etc have prominently covered the lawlessness that prevailed on the streets of Dimapur, the nerve centre of Nagaland.

The ramifications of the series of incidents that have taken place in the past few days will be enormous. The damage that the incidents have caused to the reputation and image of Nagaland and the Naga people here and around the world is irreparable. We are all shamed.

6. Even in the communal clashes that took place in Tuensang, the State Government had miserably failed to perform its duties.

Lawlessness was allowed to take place and the government’s agencies could not contain the law and order situation. In the Tuensang case also, the Chief Minister and the Home Minister mysteriously failed to show up.

7. In contrast, when the Chief Minister and the Home Minister were keen to inaugurate oil explora-

tion in Wokha, despite the protest of the students fraternity and civil society, the government’s police forces were used to lathi charge the people and curfew was forcefully enforced so that the Chief Minister and the Home Minister could reach Wokha by helicopter and officially attend the launching programme of the oil exploration. Was this done because the oil exploration was to benefit them personally?

8. Why are the Chief Minister and his home minister shying away from facing the people when situations of law and order arise? Why were precautionary measures not taken in advance to avoid the shocking and embarrassing incidents that took place on 6 March, 2015, when everybody knew that the situation was turning worse by the hour?

9. The Home Commissioner needs to be appreciated for speaking the truth, where he has admitted that the State Government has completely failed and that it is responsible for the shameful incidents. It is the poor, absent, irresponsible and spineless leadership that has led us to this situation.

10. Why are the Chief Minister and the Home Minister away in Delhi running after their personal projects and schemes in Delhi when the State is

burning? Why has he not issued even a statement of condemnation, shame or embarrassment, when entire Naga society is hanging our heads in shame?

11. It is no longer tenable for the Chief Minister and the Home Minister to continue in office any longer. They are fully responsible for all the incidents that have taken place. They are responsible for the total breakdown of law and order. They are responsible for the damage to the image and reputation of the State and our people around the world. They have failed in their duties and their responsibilities. T.R. Zeliang is a spineless chief minister who is merely being remote controlled by others and the destiny, future and cause of Nagaland and its people is being compromised every minute that he shamelessly occupies the chair of chief minister.

12. Therefore the chief minister and his home minister must immediately step down in the greater interest of Nagaland and its citizens. We are certain that the State Government under the present leadership will be unable to deliver justice and all the tall promises of arrests and action will never happen under them. They must step down immediately and put in their papers.

Issued by NPF Press and media Cell.

Keniseto, Farm Manager, KVK Porba; Hannah (SMS Agronomy), KVK Porba; and Liza, (SMS Plant Protection), KVK Porba. Altogether, 122 farmers attended the programme.

WoKha, march 6 (mExN): The Old Changsu Youth Organisation (OCYO) has strongly condemned the molestation of a 13-year-old girl at Officers’ Hill Colony, Wokha town on March 3 allegedly by Mhathung Ezung (64) of Longsachung village. A press release issued by S Zuchamo Patton, President, OCYO, expressed sympathy with the victim and appealed to the law enforcing authority to award stern punishment to the accused. It further urged all the right thinking citizens to condemn such “anti-social elements and inhuman activities” in the civilized society.

NSCW condemns sexual assaults Kohima, march 6 (mExN): The Nagaland State Commission for Women (NSCW) has condemned the alleged rape committed on a Naga woman by accused Syed Sirf Khan and co-accused Ngukavi on the night of February 23 in Dimapur.

In a statement, it also expressed shock and shame at the molestation of a 13-year-old girl by Mhathung Ezung on March 3 at Wokha and condemned it in the strongest terms.

However, the Commission has appealed to all right thinking Nagas to desist from taking the law

into their own hands and Akhire Association (Stuprevent further unrest and dents) and Yimchungru chaos in the society.

Baptist Church leaders.

At both places, the NSCW meets leaders in Commission explained Tuensang dist the significance of InterThe Nagaland State national Women’s Day and Commission for Women emphasized on the power visited Tuensang and Sha- of women as peace makers mator on March 4 in con- in society, the release said. nection with the launching It urged upon the women’s of the International Wom- organizations to take up a en’s Day 2015 and met with pro-active role in creating a Chang Khulei Setchang and harmonious environment.

Chang Thangjam Setchang The Commission also at CKS Hall, Tuensang. appealed to both the tribal At Shamator, the Com- leaders to sit together with mission met the Yimc- mutual trust and underhungru Tribal Council, standing so the future genYimchungru Women’s Or- eration can live in peace ganization, Yimchungru and harmony.

NAYO warns against instigating confusion Kohima, march 6 (mExN): Expressing “abhorrence” over the February 23 alleged rape in Dimapur and its aftermath, the Northern Angami Youth Organisation (NAYO) today warned individuals and “unmandated” organizations under its traditional jurisdiction of “swift exemplary customary response” if their write ups in the print media and social networking sites are found to have caused any law and order situation or confusion in areas that come under Northern Angamis.

“Any movement or event related to legal or illegal migrants organized in Kohima town and adjoining areas of Northern Angamis without inform-

ing either NAYO, its affiliated unit KVYO, and most importantly, its apex frontal body AYO will invite consequences,” cautioned NAYO president and information & publicity secretary in a statement.

NAYO further cautioned all uniformed personnel and those in the administration that showing any leniency to IBI's or migrants holding suspicious and invalid documents will invite swift action, for which, the departments will be held responsible.

Meanwhile, the organization welcomed and urged all Indian citizens residing and earning a livelihood under its domain to continue doing so with complete peace of

mind and at the same time ensure that its members living elsewhere get the same privileges. “All Indian citizens and legal guest are assured of their constitutional rights. However to ensure that misunderstandings do not arise all concerned are advised to have required documents as prescribed by Indian law,” it added.

NAYO also warned all “illegal immigrants to leave voluntarily or invite detection and legal deportation.” It urged that government department concerned, both at the state and centre, to take note and initiate legal procedures so that illegal immigrants present in Nagaland do not cause any further social unrest.

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.

6

People, life, etc...

Saturday | 7 March, 2015

Day Handling Our Opposers’ 42 Wrongdoing Mazie Nakhro, Ph.D

Thought-Provoking Questions: Can those who take advantage of us be able to get away with their wrongdoings forever? If they don’t care about correcting their wrongs, how should we respond?

What does God say? Read Obadiah 1:1-21 The Edomites were cruel to the people of God, although they came from Esau, the elder brother of Jacob. First, when the Israelites were headed into Canaan, Moses asked permission to pass through Edom. But the king of Edom refused so the Israelites were forced to travel through the desert. Second, when Judah was invaded and destroyed by Babylon several centuries later, the Edomites not only cheered and gloated, they also looted Judah in the aftermath. They even captured those who tried to escape and turned them over to the enemy. Third, they made some of Israel’s land their own possession so that they might plunder its pastureland (Ezek. 36:5).

So, God sent the prophet Obadiah to condemn the Edomites’ cruelty and declare its eventual judgment for their crimes against the Jews (see also Ezek. 35).

How did God punish Edom? Arab invaders soon began driving the Edomites from their mountainous strongholds.

By the first century A.D., Edom no longer existed as a nation. In Jesus’ day, the family of Herod was recognized to be of Edomite descent. But following the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, the Edomites totally disappeared from history.

Therefore, the message of Obadiah is this: God will intervene on behalf of His own people. He will correct injustices in His

own time. And the people of God will eventually possess Edom as it is said, “Deliverers will go up … and govern the mountains of Esau. And the kingdom will be the LORD’s” (Obad.

1:21).

Okay, so now what?

The Nagas, the Meites, and the Assamese are all siblings: they are all Mongoloid people. The difference, however, is that that the Nagas are a very small people group and an ignorant lot, whereas the Meites and the Assamese are much bigger and more powerful. And over the years, they have taken undue advantage of our weaknesses and have wanted to see us remain under the rule of others. They fail to realize that their interests are not served by aggression. They forget that their safety and progress are inextricably intertwined with ours and vice versa.

But whatever their wrongdoings, it is not healthy for us to brood upon past grievances or nurse hate against them.

Certainly, we all have the right to fight for our respective rights and do so in a peaceful, democratic manner, but hate we must avoid. The Bible says: “Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written, ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord” (Rom. 12:19).

Prayer: Lord, transform my negative feelings into Your love and compassion. Help me to see my neighboring people groups as my own blood relatives and love them as I love myself. Amen.

Taken from the book “Breakfast with the King: The 100-Day Devotional”

by Mazie Nakhro

Have We Lost Our Humanity?

Robert Wolff

O

ur scientists are renowned. We know so much. But more about the universe and about bacteria and viruses than we know about ourselves. Certainly, we know more than ever about the functioning of our physical selves. We have multiple imaginations about who we are and where we fit into the biosphere, for instance. But somewhere we have lost ourselves as humans. We, meaning the western "we," assume and accept that we are totally apart from the earth and all other creators. We believe we own the planet.

Most of humankind still knows that we are Mother Earth's children, as the President of Bolivia, Evo Morales, said. We are not the boss; we do not own the world. If anything, the planet owns us.

Humans everywhere have rituals and beliefs that strengthen their cohesion as a cooperative community. We westerners, modern humans, have grandiose and unreal beliefs about our unlimited power to do what we want.

What we do with all our

power endangers our own survival and that of many other species. I think that is because we know so much about matter, and so little about the spirit that is the essence of life.

We have come to think that "spirit" is unmeasurable and therefore not scientific, not worth thinking about. Perhaps because we think spirit is religion, and so outside the realm of science that deals only with matter - another form of energy as Einstein formulated. The only rational something to pay attention to.

But to me the word "spirit" does not mean religion. Religion is the package, what we create around spirit. Religion is a form we give spirit and we can make hundreds, thousands of forms.

It is hard to talk about - or define - "spirit" in a culture that accepts only matter as real. To me spirit is more real than matter.

It is the awe that is at the core of life. Spirit is in what we call love, compassion.

Spirit is the indomitable something of the people who struggled to reach the poles despite inhu-

man odds, climbed the highest mountains of the Himalayas. Spirit is what makes children surviving a cyclone in Burma take care of each other, when in the confusion no adults are around. Spirit is what makes people all over the world make sometimes great efforts to raise baby animals orphaned by hunters or poachers who killed the nursing mother tiger, or elephant. Spirit is the mysterious something we feel on a lonely beach when happening upon an unusual, almost unreal, sunrise on a far horizon.

Spirit, I imagine, is what the first space traveler felt when he saw the earth, the whole earth and understood the miracle of this ball of matter that is alive, held in a trajectory around the sun by invisible forces.

I'm not sure that only humans have spirit. I wonder what animals feel at sunset: usually no wind, fading light, birds who chatter loudly in a tree suddenly silent. Even the roosters here stop crowing. I remember a time when a friend and I were at a rocky beach. Her dog could not stop bounding

from one rock to another sniffing and playing with the waves. Until it began to get dark. When a bloodred sun lit up the sky at the far horizon the dog sat frozen at our feet, as enraptured as we were.

Hiding, ignoring, or denying spirit makes a cruel culture. It leaves us searching for ideals. Something greater, more important, than the fear which drives us today. A majority of "We the People" chose the ideals so eloquently spoken, but some politicians did not hear and perhaps had more power through worshipping money.

The irony, of course, is that money is an illusion.

A piece of paper printed with the words "ten dollars" is not worth anything but the price of a printed piece of paper. But seller and buyer accept the belief that it can buy ten dollars worth of stuff. History is full of occasions when suddenly people woke up and no longer believed the worth of a piece of paper. The wealth of the super rich is as illusional, it consists of numbers in a computer that we let it intimidate us.

Maybe you think spirit is as illusionary as money because it does not buy anything. Oh, but it does!

It does not buy material things, but spirit makes us human. Spirit is what gives compassion. Compassion: with-feeling. Not doing to others what we do not want others to do to us.

Isn't that the exact opposite of what our current culture does? We do to others what we don't want them to do to us. It is a law of nature, a law of the universe perhaps, that the more we kill others the more the others will kill us.

But what do I know?

I'm a 20th Century man, I don't understand this century.

But I do know that a culture based on fear is not healthy. If everyone and anyone is suspected of being a possible danger, we make ourselves the danger. A healthy culture is based on trust. It seems to me that is what this Republic was meant to be by the Fathers. Trusting that "We the People" were honorable human beings, trusted to want the best for all of us. Yes, flawed because at the time slaves

were not considered quite human (although human enough to bear half white children). But we corrected that.

Now we are plagued with the disease of mistrusting people of another religion, another color, other thoughts. Distrust does not a healthy society make. We have lost the human. Humans are not all alike, humans have unique qualities and talents; that make ours a unique and talented society. We cannot forget or ignore that humans have spirit even when it is hidden behind one or more masks.

Anyone remember Dune, by Frank Herbert?

Famous science fiction of the second half of the last century. This is from that book (the first, the original): I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

Ban on "India's daughter": don't shoot the messenger Arun Kumar

I

IaNS

ndia’s ban on a BBC documentary on the gang rape of an Indian woman has drowned out the real issues in a chorus of righteous protests over the “wrongs” done by foreign media - the plight of women in India.

Without even watching the documentary “India’s Daughter” about the Dec 16, 2012, rape of the woman who has come to be known as ‘Nirbhaya’ or ‘Braveheart’ in a bus in New Delhi, critics have accused BBC of “voyeurism” and worse for interviewing one of the convicted rapists.

Those who have

watched the movie would agree that it does not give a platform to the rapist, but effectively brings out how some in the male dominated Indian society view women as reflected in the rapist’s “callousness and lack of remorse” as also two defence lawyers’ rant on how “decent” women should behave.

After banning the documentary in a knee jerk reaction - and in the process unwittingly ensuring a much wider viewership the government has chosen to focus on questions like who gave BBC permission to interview the convict in India’s Tihar jail. Or was he interviewed when he was still an undertrial. And now

the action it’s contemplating against BBC for airing the banned film.

One Indian woman parliamentarian is reported to have expressed concern over how the documentary would affect India’s image abroad and hurt tourism. Though at least one Indian journalist did wonder why the Indian media did not do the story itself with all the material right there.

Other critics have asked the BBC to first put its own house in order and interview its own child rapists - a reference to the child sex abuse scandal that rocked the corporation a couple of years ago.

Since then “a total of 152

recent and historic allegations of sexual abuse against 81 BBC employees and freelancers” have been reported.

“They could go to the US and do an interview with a college rapist,” a critic suggested citing research by the National Institute of Justice that one in five women students are raped during their college career.

“The most dangerous place for a woman is not the streets of Delhi, but US college campuses,” the critic concluded.

There is no denying the fact that street harassment of women is quite widespread in the US too, and US politicians have also made

insensitive comments like Republican Todd Akin opposing abortions saying "legitimate rape" rarely causes pregnancy.

A suggestion that US media and activists are trying to divert attention away from the US situation by denouncing India as a society of violence towards women may well be true - but that’s beside the point.

An AP story published by several US dailies suggested the convicted “murderer and rapist's views” blaming the victim “were shocking in their callousness and lack of remorse. But the underlying view has wide acceptance in India”.

Many in the Western media have of course sought to portray India’s ban as a freedom of speech issue with some suggesting that it was a display of the “authoritarian streak” in India’s new ‘strongman leader’ Narendra Modi.

But as The New York Times noted, Indians found “ways to watch the rape documentary despite ban” with the film spreading “throughout social media, gaining a wide audience despite a government ban and thwarting official efforts to block it”.

One was against the ban on “India’s Daughter” before one was for it - if it helps spread the message as it appears to be doing.

The meaning and enduring importance of Mr Spock Smile for the cosmic Lens!

A

Joel Huruska

ctor Leonard Nimoy, best known for his role as Spock on Star Trek, passed away at his home in Bel Air today, at the age of 83. The cause of death was endstage obstructive pulmonary disease, which Nimoy blamed on smoking, though he gave up the habit some thirty years ago. During his sixty years in show business, Nimoy worked in virtually every medium we have a name for, recording music, writing poetry, and starring on both stage and screen.

The half-human, halfVulcan Spock, of course, is the character he’s most famous for — and at a website like ExtremeTech, where we celebrate and discuss technology, it seems appropriate to trace where the roots of that interest began. For me, at least, they began with Spock.

Nimoy’s characterization of Spock blended a brilliant technical mind with a poignant, rarely demonstrated, but deeply felt desire for friendship and belonging. Spock’s struggle to balance his Vulcan and human halves and his uncertain grasp of human society and culture are timeless in a way that 1960s fashion and hackneyed special effects could never be. If you’ve ever been humiliated by your peers and stood silent, struggling to keep your composure, clinging to self-discipline, then you could relate to Spock.

If you were nerdy before nerdy was remotely cool, Spock was a touchstone.

The three-way friendship between Kirk, Spock, and McCoy was proof that being more comfortable with circuits and computers then you were in social situations didn’t have to mean a life of isolation.

The crew of the Enterprise valued the half-Vulcan’s phenomenal intellect and scientific prowess; his reserve was treated with respect, and his occasional social faux pas forgiven.

It mattered to a young me, and I know I’m not the only one who felt that way.

Nimoy explored the relationship between himself and his most famous character in two books.

In 1975, he published the autobiography I Am Not Spock. The book’s title was widely misperceived as a repudiation of the character; in reality, Nimoy had simply meant to establish that he was a fundamentally different person than the character he’d portrayed on television.

Twenty years later, he wrote I Am Spock, which acknowledged that Spock was and had always been a fundamental part of who he was. Much of the book is told in the form of conversations between Spock and Nimoy, but it explores his wider career, including his participation in non-Star Trek movies and television shows. I haven’t read it since it came out twenty years ago, but I’ll likely be hunting it up again as soon as I have a chance.

A life well-lived Leonard Nimoy, of course, was more than just Spock. He provided the voice-over work for multiple documentaries, video games, and films.

He played the mad scientist William Bell on Fringe and Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof. He was a poet, a photographer, and active in the Jewish community (he could speak and read Yiddish and narrated a documentary about the lives of Hasidic Jews living in America in 2002).

He wasn’t afraid to challenge the conventions of his faith or our larger society; his book Shekhina was controversial for exploring what he described as the feminine aspect of the nature of God. His later photographic book, The Full Body Project, put women who were heavier than society deems typically attractive front and center.

But for me (and with respect to Zachary Quinto), he was Spock — and if I could have told him anything, I would have told him thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Nimoy, for creating a character that so adroitly demonstrated the struggles so many people feel in life, and for illustrating how such a person can still find meaning, friendship, dignity, and love. Thank you for the wry observations, deadpan delivery, perplexed eyebrow, and occasional moments of laughout-loud hilarity.

Farewell, Mr. Spock.

May the wind be at your back.

T

Phile Plait

hat picture above is real! It’s a Hubble Space Telescope image of a cluster of galaxies with the poetic name of SDSS J1038+4849 (called that because it was first seen in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and the numbers are its coordinates, like latitude and longitude, on the sky). What you’re seeing is a peculiar effect of relativity called “gravitational lensing.”

You know that gravity can bend the path of an object traveling in space; an orbit is just a path bent so much one object goes around another.

Gravity does this by bending space itself, warping it. A moving object follows that bend like a bobsled sliding along the twists and turns of its track. Any object … including light.

And that’s what you’re seeing. J1038 is a group of galaxies about 4.5 billion

light-years away, and there are trillions of stars in the cluster. That’s a lot of mass, and a lot of gravity. Beyond it, at a distance of about 7.5 billion light years, lie more galaxies. The light from those galaxies passes by J1038 on its way to Earth, and travels through the region of space distorted by the galaxies’ gravity. This bends the light, acting like a giant lens made of gravity (hence the term gravitational lens, of course).

There are lots of ways the light can bend. The simplest is in an arc shape, smearing out the shapes of the more distant galaxies. In cases where the lensing and lensed galaxies line up just right, you can get a ring of light around the lensing galaxy! Lensing can also create multiple copies of a background galaxy (this is called an Einstein Cross) and even make the more distant galaxy appear much brighter.

In J1038, the eyes are two elliptical galaxies in the lensing cluster, and

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.

the nose is a smaller galaxy (it may or may not be part of the lensing cluster).

The smile and the sides of the head are actually the much more distant galaxies, distorted into arcs.

Lensing is more than just a quirk; it’s actually a powerful tool used by astronomers. Many background galaxies are too faint to study on their own, but lensing can make them bright enough to study. It also tells us about the mass of the galaxies doing the lensing, and even the distribution of invisible dark matter in the cluster—normally it can’t be detected easily, but dark matter has mass and therefore gravity, and it contributes to the lensing.

Lensing is pretty handy, and it’s a circumstance that makes a lot of astronomers happy. I’m not one to push a metaphor too much, but sometimes it does feel like the Universe is smiling on us.

7

Morung Youth Express

Saturday

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

7 March, 2015

The Ledo story part III

I

t was back to Hellgate for Herman Perry after his prison term was over. He was first treated for some painful infections, after which he travelled by truck to rejoin his unit.

For the youngster from Washington, something had turned. The stockade prison experience had utterly changed his personality from debonair and dashing to sullen and combative. He railed about his treatment in the stockade, rightly so. He was embittered by it and easily sank into depression. This condition was nothing new for many GIs. Loneliness and the monotonous routine they lived under drove many to the edge of madness. Sheds for housing, leeches and mosquitoes and gibbon monkeys for nocturnal company, and brutal racist treatment from white officers; it was not surprising to hear of GIs having nervous breakdowns, crying fits and becoming violent towards fellow soldiers.

Opium use as documented in the book offers very interesting history.

The American army purchased opium from the British government, and paid the Naga workers with opium. In a month, they paid as much as fiftyfive pounds of opium to Naga porters – an amount that was sufficient to get thousands of Nagas high daily. The author asserts that the British administration introduced opium usage as a way of subdu-

ing the famed head-hunters. Even the Japanese are believed to have flooded Nanjing with five-cent packets of opium which explained the lack of Chinese resistance to Japanese conquest.

There were enough warnings about opium, therefore many American soldiers avoided it, but for Herman life had become too painful. In his vulnerable state of mind, he reached for the drug that could help him get through this part of his life.

Unfortunately it led to him oversleeping and missing reveille, not just once but twice. The Military Police were alert to his absences and when they came to arrest him, Herman refused to go back to the guardhouse. Flashes of the terrible stockade prison came back to him, and he resisted arrest the only way he knew, by grabbing his MI rifle, and threatening to use it. Things went from bad to worse as twentyeight-year-old Lieutenant Cady tried to take him in.

The young Cady was insensitive, and notorious for his hard methods of dealing with intransigent soldiers. Thrice Herman warned him not to come closer, but he would not listen. Cady was trying to take the gun away when he was shot in the chest and stomach by Herman.

Then on began the biggest manhunt of World War Two. Herman had no other option than to run away from sure lynching or execution for killing a

white officer. He ran into the jungles and hid from the army. His officers assumed that he would have made his way to Calcutta, and therefore they laid snares in Calcutta’s brothels to catch him. They pasted wanted posters of Herman with a picture of him and a 1000 rupees reward in many Burmese towns. But Herman was quietly hiding in the Burmese woods, stealing food from the camp and trying to survive the harsh jungles.

Mistreated, malnourished and overworked, and now hunted for a crime he had been pushed into committing, Herman was also using opium addictively by this time. One afternoon, he stumbled back to camp, to the great dismay of his fellow black engineers. He seemed not to be aware of the great danger to himself. His friends hid him and sent him away with the warning that he was to be courtmartialled if he was captured. Herman realised that the jungle was his only option, and escaping with rations and a gun, he wandered out again. As he trudged through the tiger

infested regions, he stumbled upon a Naga village decorated with captured heads, and all evidence of the rituals that accompany head hunting. Herman and the other engineers had formerly had contact with the Naga tribes, trading with them by exchanging army rations for opium. Even though the Army had little contact with the Naga tribes, fearing their penchant for hunting heads, Herman felt that this was the last resort for him. He approached them with gifts of rations, was treated well and became their honoured guest. His rifle made him welcome as his hosts could now hunt gibbon monkeys and tigers with it. Eventually Herman became the sonin-law of the chief of the village of Tgum Ga when the chief offered his fourteen-year-old daughter to Herman as a bride.

Herman’s story might well have ended there if he had chosen to live the rest of his life out the Naga way. But he made forays into town looking for cigarettes and more rations.

At first his friends readily helped him to get rations that he took back to his

village hideout. But word soon spread that Herman Perry had not escaped to Calcutta via Ledo, and was still at large in the mountains close to the road construction. After his flight, Herman had become a kind of hero for all the other suppressed engineers who saw his killing of Cady as resistance of white oppression. When the military police tightened down on the stealing of rations, his friends could no longer assist him. Herman’s luck finally ran out when the military police employed a Naga spy to trace him down. Surrounded by military policemen who had been led to his village he ran for it, but was shot in the chest as he fled. Herman woke up in hospital having survived the gun shot. His court martial and trial took a few hours, and he was sentenced to death by hanging. Herman escaped one more time before the date of his hanging, but was caught and finally hanged on the 15th of March, 1945.

Little is known of what happened to Herman Perry’s young Naga wife. She bore him a son, and the last American to see the

baby was Captain Richard ‘Les’ Johnston. The baby was never seen or heard of again.

Brendan Koerner’s book, Now the Hell will Start is fascinating not just because of the stories and continents it encompasses, but the amazing interplay of race theory, colonial policy and the politics of war that enacts itself on an elevated a scale as the Ledo Road theatre, and also in microcosm in the life of Private Herman Perry. Racial science theory imbibed by white American administrators, and white Military officers put into effect a greatly unjust treatment of African American soldiers through the practice of segregation. Years after the war, Koerner met Herman’s family who affirmed that black soldiers in the US army were treated like “animals.”

On a personal level, I enjoyed putting side by side two things: the Metanarrative of the Second World War and the Ledo road construction, and the personal narrative of Herman Perry, and his private war against Jim Crowism in the US army.

Naga Women Participation in Society

C

hristine Lagarde, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, recently spoke about the relationship between growth in global economy and equal participation of women in the economy. In effect, Lagarde contends that if women were allowed to participate in the economy there are more prospects for growth and equitable development. To do this, to enable women to participate in the economy (we) would have to start with educating and empowering them.

Further, cultural attitudes, legal restrictions and social practices that curtail women’s free and equal participation in the society have to be removed and overcome.

The statistics provided by the World Economic Forum survey on Global Gender Gap Index 2014 is distressing. India ranks 114 out of 142 countries in the Gender Gap Index. The percentage of women’s status

in economic participation and opportunity, political empowerment, educational attainment, and health and survival are all below zero pointers, not surprising the country score is 0.646 (in a reading of 0.00=inequality, 1.00=equality). While the country score and the reality it represents is nothing worth of celebrating, there are changes and progress made albeit incremental. Admittedly, women have achieved much in the last few decades. Assessed from a certain perspective, women in the country are listed among successful entrepreneurs, politicians, academicians, bankers, scientists.

However, for every successful Indian woman, there are hundreds, if not thousands more women exploited, excluded and victimised.

If the larger Indian society has made small progress, often in a case of one step forward, two steps back with the endemic violence against women

in every possible manner: rape, sexual harassment, domestic violence, verbal abuse, female foeticide; the Naga society is yet to awaken to the gross injustice of excluding women from many aspects of the society. Naga women participation in the society is a complex phenomenon.

It doesn’t seem to have any rational logic undergirding their exclusion, save for ignorance and apathy.

Complex it is, because Naga women have long enjoyed access to education and individual progress. When modern education was introduced among the Naga people in the early twentieth century, there was hardly any recorded instance of resistance against women to be educated. Schools in the villages were both for girls and boys. Naga women pursued medical studies and theological education, without any systemic restrictions. Both of which were highly contentious areas, accompanied often by

long-drawn debates, activist campaigns and legal decisions in other societies for women to pursue. As soon as educational qualifications allowed them, Naga women took up professional jobs, Naga women preached from the pulpit, long before they were ordained.

These practices indicate a fair and progressive society, a people who possessed a fair sense of civility and equality. It is not surprising that colonial officers and western ethnographers like J.P. Mills, Christoph von Furer Haimendorf, and Verrier Elwin have noted the relative freedom and equality Naga women enjoyed.

This is not to deny the fact that Naga society is a patriarchal society, where the male dominates and decides for the family and the whole community.

The point is that despite being a patriarchal society, Naga society has not resisted in educating women in a systemic way. Naga women have enjoyed equal em-

ployment opportunity as long as they were qualified, Naga women have participated in the economy, at least as small scale, local market levels entrepreneurships.

If such was the attitude, either a reflection of resignation to the ways of the modern life or passive ignorance of the changes afforded by the introduction of new religiocultural system of society, Naga society today should not hold against women active participation in every aspect of the society, be it in the political arena, village governance and church councils. There are sufficient studies that affirm the merits of including women in decision making in communities. Naga society today is at an important juncture in our history, we need as many as possible wise and capable people to lead, and it would make the Naga society the poorer to keep out half of its members from leadership positions.

At the same time we see British colonial policy successfully otherising the local people who appear in the novel, the head-hunting Nagas. They are described as “the wildest and most barbarous of hill tribes, and looked upon with dread and horror by the neighbours of the plains who consider them as ruthless robbers and murderers.” This was a description detailed by John McCosh, a Scottish surgeon in 1837. The first British expedition on the Naga areas was in 1832, so this was not many years after their efforts to tame warrior country.

The Stilwell-Chennault-Chiang ego war over the Ledo road constantly throws up the question: Need the Ledo Road have been built at all? Wasn’t this, in the end an American General’s personal expedition to avenge himself on the Japanese at the cost of several human lives, loss of livestock and machinery, not forgetting the time and money invested in the road that took three years to build? For many years, it was relegated to that part of the Second World War known as the forgotten theatre because western media was not interested in Allied victory beyond Normandy and North Africa. Herman’s story was milked for its sensationalism and pulp magazines used his nickname for all it was worth: The Jungle King.

American missionary activity was welcomed

by British administrators who saw the conversion of Nagas as a positive thing: Christianity led Naga tribesmen to voluntarily give up headhunting in many areas, the people became more peaceful and amenable to British administration.

Now the Hell will Start is an engrossing book. Koerner has spent time researching World War Two history around the Naga Hills, including as he does, the battalion led by Ursula Graham Bower and the later history of the Naga Freedom struggle and subsequent factionalism. The book exposes the dark history behind the building of a road that has been hailed in official circles as an engineering accomplishment, and unravels the individual stories of racism, brutality and inhuman hardships that also went into the making of the Ledo Road.

Now the Hell will Start has been called an ‘incendiary social document’ and the writer hailed as a ‘startling writer of great humanity.’

This is a book that should also be read to free us from the theories that are always competing to dictate our attitudes towards other humans, especially those over whom we exert power and authority. Intensely tragic and cruel, nevertheless offering a heart-wrenching human lesson to be learned.

Now the Hell will start, Brendan E. Koerner, The Penguin Press, New York, 2008. 386 pages

Sometimes David

Sometimes we've got to be alone To miss the company of friends, And travel endlessly in a line straight To long for curves and bends.

Sometimes we've got to be sad, To know the joy around us, And we've got to shed those tears To let smile come shining through.

Sometimes we've got to let go To show our love is true, And search our soul in loneliness To feel the wounded you.

Sometimes we've got to fail To let life catch up with us, And we need to realize that Bad time were sent to bring out the best in us.

Eranbeni Erui

Dr. Atola Longkumer Bengaluru

Young Indians learn to fight pollution to save lives

C

Julie Mccarthy

hina's pollution is epic enough that even the mayor of Beijing said his city "is not livable" because of its noxious smog.

But a new study, published Saturday in the Economic & Political Weekly, shows that 660 million people — half the population — live in areas where fine particulate matter pollution is above levels considered safe under Indian standards.

If India curbs the pollution and meets its air quality standards, those 660 million people would add some 3.2 years onto their lives. "Put another way, compliance with Indian air quality standards would save 2.1 billion life-years," the researchers wrote. Facts about the country's pollution and health leave little doubt that India is squarely in the forefront of foulest air: • The top four the 20 worst polluted cities worldwide are in India.

• Delhi is now the most polluted major city.

• India has the highest

rate of deaths caused by respiratory disease.

As the litany grows, more Indians, especially the young, are getting involved in environmental activism.

This week a familiar voice, former Vice President Al Gore, was in New Delhi to lend encouragement, linking bad air to climate change.

Gore addressed some 500 trainees being inducted into his Climate Reality Leadership Corps. He said that opportunities to reverse global warning have never been greater.

It was the 27th of such global sessions under Gore's tutelage. Attendees sat through Gore's signature slideshow that meticulously takes them through the science of climate change, a two-hour performance that manages to hold the audience in thrall, despite being crammed inside a cavernous ballroom.

Gore opens with a series of iconic images of Earth. The photographs are meant to signal that, whether it is pollution shortening lives in India, super-typhoons leveling villages

in the Philippines, or extreme weather events afflicting Americans, "we all live on the same small planet." He projects the shot of Earth captured by the Apollo 17 Mission in 1972 — a full disc of the planet illuminated. "This one picture is the most publicized photograph in all of human history," Gore says.

There's a shot from the Space Shuttle of the rising sun, peaking over a narrow band. It shows how "the atmosphere is much smaller than we might imagine, just looking up at the limitless sky," Gore says. Borrowing from the late Carl Sagan, Gore says the atmosphere is like "varnish" on the globe of the Earth, it's so thin. And with humankind pouring 110-million tons of pollution into that layer every day, he says, "it doesn't take very long to change the chemical composition of the atmosphere and to build up the heat-trapping gasses, principally carbon dioxide."

A quarter of the audience — all being taught how

to counter the climate change denial campaign — is said to be between 25 and 35 years old. But Rajashree Agrawal is just 15. She says she sees climate change as an opportunity to create a healthier, cleaner India.

"Previously people weren't concerned with, let's say, where do we find more resources; it was just about putting a factory anywhere and putting it anyway, and now we are going to put it so that there is sustainable growth," the teenager says. "My generation will now develop more correctly."

Her generation will have to act if they are to roll back the climate change that Gore asserts is already underway here. Citing 2014 as India hottest on record, Gore explains that warmer air holds more water vapor, which in turn helps create ever bigger storms. All over India downpours, on average, are larger, he says, and floods and landslides more frequent.

Gore narrates a video made about the flood that

killed 5,700 people in the Indian state of Uttarakhand in 2013.

In the video, a man describes being stuck in a bus in the dead of the night. "A lady came rapping on all the windows," he says. "When she knocked, we woke up, and then she screamed, 'Run, run, run!' And we leapt up and ran.

And everything, all our possessions, all our money, all of it, is gone, finished."

Gore tells NPR, "There are few climate change doubters in India." Droughts are worsening "as higher temperatures pull moisture from the soil," he explains.

Farmer suicide is a complex phenomenon, but tens of thousands of Indian farmers have killed themselves since the year 2000. Desertification is rising as the ice pack in the Himalayas, which feeds the great rivers of India, is diminishing. Between a third and a half of the ice could be lost by the end of the century. The monsoons are changing, Gore says, and India is susceptible to an increase in water-borne

diseases associated with global warming.

"So these and other phenomena don't really require much explanation from scientists because Mother Nature is communicating the message so powerfully," Gore says, "But there's another question alongside, 'Do we have to change?' The question is, 'Can we change?' " The 500 eager trainees in the audience believe it's possible. Aditya Pundir is the Branch Manager for Climate Reality Project India. He says the fine particle pollution, which is invisible, is now better understood, if not seen.

Publishing pollution levels is just now starting to draw wider public attention, he says.

"When people make that crucial link between pollution and disease — that I'm suffering [from] asthma because of this, I'm suffering cancer because of this — once I start making this association," that's when action will come, he says.

Back at the lecture hall, Gore adopts the fervor of a

preacher. He insists that renewable energy makes more economic sense than the dirty fossil fuels that currently power India because, he says, the cost of materials like solar panels will come down in much the same way mobile phones have.

"This is the greatest new business opportunity in the history of the world: renewable energy, efficiency, energy storage, sustainable agriculture, sustainable forestry, sustainable architecture," he says.

"This is the transformation of the global economy."

Fifteen-year-old attendee Rajashree Agrawal quit school to teach herself economics and physics. She can hold her own while discussing India's oil imports and hold forth on the lack of public agitation over the pollution that's killing Indians.

Listening to Agrawal, it's difficult not to be optimistic about India. She calls her country a "banyan tree," a sacred tree in India. And for her generation, "the main trunk is environmental protection."

(Source: npr.org)

8

Dimapur

NATIONAL

Saturday 7 March 2015

The Morung Express

48 Indian fishermen captured Indian Ocean diplomacy: Modi to by Pakistan; eight boats seized visit Seychelles, Mauritius, Sri Lanka

New Delhi, March 6 (iaNS): Giving a major fillip to India's neighbourhood outreach in the Indian Ocean region, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be on a five-day visit to the three key island nations of Seychelles, Mauritius and Sri Lanka from March 10.

However, the Maldives leg of the visit is not on, in view of the recent political turmoil in that country after the arrest of opposition leader and former Maldivian president Mohamed Nasheed.

In Seychelles, the first stop of his tour, Modi will hold bilateral discussions with President James Alexis Michel to strengthen maritime ties and enhance bilateral development cooperation.

Three agreements are set to be inked between Seychelles and India during the visit. Modi will be the second Indian prime minister to visit Seychelles after Indira Gandhi's visit in 1981.

India's bilateral cooperation with Seychelles

is mainly in the field of health, education, defence and maritime security.

India recently gave a patrol ship to Seychelles, a 115-island country located 1,500 km east of Southeast Africa. The patrol ship was for the Seychelles Coast Guard to better patrol its extensive Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

Both are likely to ink an agreement to strengthen the energy sector of the Seychelles, an Indian Ocean archipelago of 90,000 people.

Modi next visits Mauritius on March 11-12 where he will hold intensive meetings with Prime Minister Sir Anerood Jugnauth to further strengthen India's special and unique relations with that country. Modi will also be the chief guest at the Mauritian National Day celebrations. A formal invite for the event had been handed over to him personally

by Vice-Prime Minister Showkutally Soodun in January.

Besides meeting with the Mauritian prime min-

ister, Modi will also call on President Kailash Purryag, and meet leader of the opposition, Paul Berenger.

Modi is likely to address the Mauritian Parliament on March 12. Besides meeting other political personalities of the island, Modi will pay a visit to the Ganga Talao and Appravasi Ghat, both of which are associated with the arrival of the Indian indentured labour to Mauritius. He will also visit the Mahatma Gandhi Institute.

During the visit, several MoUs are set to be inked, including an agreement to facilitate sea and air transport.

Modi's final stop will be Sri Lanka, on March 13-14, during which he will hold meetings with President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Modi will address a Special Sitting of the Sri Lankan Parliament and also lay a wreath at the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) Memorial and visit the Mahabodhi Society.

President Maithripala

Sirisena will host a state banquet in honour of the visiting Indian prime minister, the Sri Lankan foreign ministry said.

Modi is also expected to travel to Anuradhapura, Talaimannar and Jaffna. In Anuradhapura, he will visit the sacred Sri Maha Bodhi.

While in Jaffna, he will unveil a plaque at the site of the proposed India- funded Jaffna Cultural Centre and also hand over to beneficiaries, houses built with Indian assistance. In Talaimannar, he will flag off the first train signifying recommencement of the Talaimannar/Medawachchiya sector of the train service to Colombo, following the rehabilitation work carried out with Indian credit assistance, said the foreign ministry.

Modi's visit is the first official visit to Sri Lanka by an Indian prime minister in 27 years after the 1987 visit by then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. He will be accorded a ceremonial welcome including a Guard of Honour and Gun Salute.

President Sirisena un-

dertook his first state visit to India from February 15 to 18, after taking over the presidency.

The exchange of high level visits is a manifestation of the keen desire of the two countries to build upon and nurture an ageold friendship to a level of extraordinary level of excellence, said the Sri Lankan foreign ministry.

"This will provide opportunities to build on the close contacts at the highest political level and enhance mutual cooperation and understanding on major issues of common interest," said an Indian ministry of external affairs statement.

"The visit of the prime minister to our friendly maritime neighbours is reflective of India's desire to further strengthen our ties in the Indian Ocean region," added the statement.

India's Indian Ocean diplomacy comes as China is pushing ahead with its maritime silk road project, which entails port-building activities at several places in the Indian Ocean.

Indian fishermen sit in a police station in Karachi on Friday, March 6, after the Pakistani Maritime Security Agency arrested 48 for violating its waters in the Arabian Sea. (AP Photo)

ahMeDabaD, March 6 (PTi): The Pakistan Maritime Security Agency (MSA) today apprehended 48 Indian fishermen and seized 8 of their boats near Jakhau port off the Gujarat coast, officials of National Fishworkers Forum (NFF) said.

The Forum claimed that the Pakistani agency guards fired several rounds in the air to overpower these fishermen before taking them to Karachi from Indian waters.

Talking to PTI, NFF secretary Manish Lodhari said, "The Pakistan MSA apprehended 48 Indian fishermen along with 8 of their boats near Jakhau port off the Gujarat coast in the Arabian sea this morning."

According to him, they came to know about the incident from other fishermen, who came back. "We learned that all the fishermen and boats belonged to Porbandar and Veraval. The Pakistani agency ab-

ducted these fishermen from Indian waters by firing several rounds in the air. They were taken to Karachi and lodged in jail," he said.

In December last year, the MSA had captured 58 fishermen and seized 11 of their boats near the International Maritime Boundary near Jakhau port. Thereafter, on January 4, the MSA had apprehended 12 Indian fishermen and seized their two boats near the International Maritime Boundary.

This incident had come close on the heels of the Indian Coast Guard intercepting a Pakistani fishing boat off the coast of Gujarat. The boat, which was said to be carrying explosives, was intercepted on the intervening night of December 31 and January 1 around 365-km off the Porbandar coast, before it reportedly exploded, caught fire and sunk with four crew members on board.

Revoke ban on BBC Kashmir Highway Mumbai NGO arranges 'ghar wapasi' of lost-and-found kids documentary on Nirbhaya: March 6 (iaNS): A with promises of jobs and then forced Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and remain closed for 4th MuMbai, Mumbai NGO, My Home India, has into prostitution. Four children from apprised him of the NGO's activities.

Editors Guild of India Delhi and others from Uttar Pradesh, Impressed by the effort, Deodhar said successfully arranged the 'ghar wapasi' consecutive day (homecoming) of 170 lost-and-found Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal, Odi- Fadnavis has assured My Home India New Delhi, March 6 (PTi): Editors Guild of India JaMMu, March 6 (PTi): The 300-km long JammuSrinagar National Highway, the only surface link connecting Kashmir Valley with the rest of the country, continued to remain closed for the fourth consecutive day today following landslides triggered by heavy rain in the area.

“The national highway is closed for traffic and the road is being cleared of the debris due to the landslides at some places,” a Traffic Department spokesman said here. He said, the heavy rains and snowfall on Monday caused landslides at some places which forced the closure of the road.

“Landslides have occurred at Gumroo in Banihal and other places which led to the closure of the highway,” he said. Authorities are involved in relief work including clearing the debri from the road and a decision to open the highway would be taken later, official said.

Meanwhile, the Meteorological Department has said, the weather would be freaky for one another week with increased precipitation from March 8.

kids who were languishing in various shelters here, an official said on Friday.

The kids aged between 14-16, including nearly 100 girls, were lured from their homes with employment promises and pushed into lowpaying jobs or the flesh trade, said Mithilesh Jha, national coordinator for the programme entitled 'Sapno Se Apno Tak'.

"In the past one year, we have managed to contact the families of these minors all over India, including the north-eastern states, and four from Nepal. Later, we arranged to hand them over to their respective families and bore their travel expenses," Jha told IANS. Of the 75 from the north-eastern states, a whopping 67 young girls from Assam were brought to Mumbai

sha and Karnataka were engaged in exploitative child labour.

These children, given up as 'lost' or dead by their families back home in remote areas, were found by the Mumbai Police after which My Home India swung into action. Earlier, the NGO chief Sunil Deodhar said that daily many innocent children run away from their homes or are lost and come to metros like Mumbai with dreams of making it big.

"They land in wrong company and are compelled to work as child labour, indulge in petty crimes, begging, etc. We try to save the young unfortunate kids and re-unite them with their families as we firmly believe they are the future of India," Deodhar said.

Deodhar called on Maharashtra

of getting a link-up with various children's remand homes in Maharashtra.

Buoyed by the success, Deodhar now plans to expand the NGO's activity on a national scale to help more such lost-and-found children. Jha said My Home India presently has a network of 40 teams across major cities in the country which secure the details of such children.

He explained that there are multiple reasons for children getting 'lost' or running away from their homes.

"A few are blinded by the glamour of Bollywood, some are ill-treated at home, others escape torture by one or two step-parents... A majority of them face deep emotional problems and they reveal their home addresses only after months of counselling and cajoling," Jha said.

Households vital for India's energy independence: Scientist agarTala, March 6 (iaNS): India will achieve energy independence by 2050 if most households go for rooftop solar power generation under a new official policy, a leading expert has said.

According to solar scientist Shantipada Gon Chaudhuri, the ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE) is in the process of framing an ambitious policy to generate adequate electricity from non-conventional energy sources.

"The proposed policy would promote generation of solar power using the rooftops and backyards of every house," Gon

Chaudhuri told IANS. "After consuming the required power, the family will be able to sell the rest to utility services and authorities at stipulated rates," he added.

Gon Chaudhuri is involved in drafting the rooftop solar power generation policy, which he said would be ready within a year.

Saying work was already on in Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Gujarat, West Bengal, Karnataka and Delhi, he observed that the proposed policy would help India to achieve the goal of energy independence.

"Without India's energy freedom and security, the country's

growth cannot be achieved," Gon Chaudhuri said.

"Generation of more and more energy from the non-conventional sources will help to curb carbon emission and restrict rising pollution."

The MNRE has revised its target of renewable energy capacity to 175,000 MW by 2022, comprising 100,000 MW solar, 60,000 MW wind, 10,000 MW biomass and 5,000 MW small hydro.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley referred to this in his budget speech in parliament on February 28.

"Germany, Japan, UK and Spain already have rooftop solar

power policy. These countries are generating huge power from solar and non-conventional sources," said Gon Chaudhuri, who got the prestigious 'Green Oscar' award in 2004.

He said that with a plan to produce 175,000 MW electricity by 2022 from non-conventional sources and a few lakh MW from usual sources, India could achieve energy independence by 2050.

Not only households but various government, non-government and private institutions would be given room to generate solar power using their rooftops, water bodies and unoccupied lands.

Gon Chaudhuri has developed India's first floating solar power plant installed on a water body near Eco Park in New Town, near Kolkata.

The one MW capacity floating solar power project, financed by MNRE, was inaugurated on January 5.

"It is not possible to convert the entire electricity generation system from conventional to non-conventional method overnight," he said.

"It is also not practical that the total required electricity must be generated from the non-conventional sources. There must be a co-existence of both systems.

Colours rule streets as people celebrate Holi

New Delhi, March 6 (PTi): Colours ruled the streets on Friday as people of all ages celebrated Holi across the country and joined the revelry applying ‘gulal’ on each other, gorging on sweets and singing and dancing to songs and drum beats.

While the celebrations were mostly incident-free, two persons lost their lives in Bihar and two others were killed in Uttar Pradesh during or after Holi celebrations.

People embraced each other wishing ‘Happy Holi’ as unseen hands squirted them with a well-timed coloured water spray.

Water-filled balloons were lobbed from rooftops and balconies as cries of ‘Holi hai’ reverberated the streets.

The festival, the harvest festival which heralds the advent of spring, is celebrated to commemorate the Hindu mythological tale of Prahlada emerging unscathed from the flames despite being drawn into the fire by demoness Holika.

A boy smears colored powder on the head of another during Holi celebrations in Hyderabad on Friday, March 6. Holi, the Hindu festival of colors, also marks the advent of spring. (AP Photo)

The Hindu month of ‘Phagun’ ended on Thursday with ‘Holika Dahan’ and ‘Chaita’ starting on Friday.

However, tragedy struck when two boys — Satyam Kumar (10) and Ayodhya Singh (12) — drowned while taking bath in a pond after ‘Holika dahan’ at a village in Chenari in Bihar’s Rohtas district on

Thursday night. The bodies were recovered during the wee hours today and sent for post mortem, Sub-Divisional Police Officer of Sasaram Alakh Niranjan Chaudhary said.

Celebrations in Bihar was mostly peaceful, except sporadic incidents of clashes between revellers in which a few persons suffered minor injuries.

In Uttar Pradesh, the festival was celebrated amid tight security. Two persons were killed during Holi revelry in Varanasi and Etah districts. Ramsurat (60) was beaten to death in Sarnath area of Varanasi district after he smeared colour on a woman. In Etah, one Pooran Lodhi (55) was shot dead in Mahavirganj area during the revelry.

In Delhi, the festival of colours was celebrated with traditional zeal and zest as people smeared ‘gulal’, splashed colour baloons on each other and exchanged sweets as a mark of bonhomie. As arterial roads wore a deserted look, public places, housing colonies and special venues witnessed a riot of colours with both young and old taking part in the revelry.

Several five-star hotels, clubs and restaurants in the city also lured patrons as they organised rain dance parties and with Holi snacks and buffets, attracting big crowds.

Children enjoyed the day most as they sprayed coloured water using water guns and hurled water-filled balloons on people from their rooftops. Delhi Police made elaborate arrangements to ensure a safe and joyous Holi. Police personnel were deployed across the city. Police had issued warning against hooliganism in the guise of revelry.

Over 200 special check-

ing teams of traffic police along with PCR vans and local police were deployed this time to check incidents of drink and drive, speeding and reckless driving. Special teams with alcometers and 20 interceptors were also be deployed at major intersections to detect and prosecute violators.

Police had also positioned men armed with cameras who video graphed offenders so that if they cannot be prosecuted on the spot due to rush, challans can be sent at home.

The festival was also celebrated with gaiety and fervour in Punjab, Haryana and their common capital Chandigarh as revellers took to streets armed with sprinklers since morning.

Holi was celebrated with traditional fervour in the Pink city with enthusiastic revellers and people thronging the streets. Foreign tourists celebrated the festival at Khasakothi Hotel where special arrangements were made for them by the Department of Tourism.

on Friday appealed to the government to revoke the ban on the telecast of the BBC documentary, depicting the aftermath of the brutal gangrape and murder of Nirbhaya in 2012, saying the move was "wholly unwarranted".

The Guild said in a statement here that the documentary, 'Storyville: India's daughter', portrayed the courage, sensibility and liberal outlook of a family traumatised by the brutality inflicted on their daughter, the continuing shameful attitudes towards women among the convict as well as the educated, including lawyers.

It said their rationale that the ban was in the interests of justice and public order as the film "created a situation of tension and fear amongst women" and the convicts would use the media to further his case in the appeal that was subjudice, seems to be an after-thought.

The Guild appealed to the central government to revoke the ban forthwith and enable the people to view the positive and powerful documentary touching on the freedom, dignity and safety of women.

The documentary includes an interview conducted

by British filmmaker Leslee Udwin and BBC, of Mukesh Singh, the driver of the bus in which the 23-year-old paramedical student was brutally gangraped by six men on December 16, 2012. Mukesh has made derogatory statements against women in the documentary.

Former Bihar CM Ram Sundar Das passes away PaTNa, March 6 (iaNS): Former Bihar chief minister and ruling JD-U leader, 94-year-old Ram Sundar Das died here on Friday. According to family members, Das breathed his last at the Patna Medical College and Hospital early Friday.

Das, whose trademark dress was a cotton dhoti, kurta and Gandhi cap, is survived by two sons and one daughter. His wife passed away a few years ago.

Expressing condolences, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said that Das was active in politics till early this week when he was admitted to the hospital for age related problems. "It is a big loss for the party, Bihar, and me personally," Kumar said.

Das, who was not able to move freely due to old age, contested his last Lok Sabha polls in 2014 against Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan but lost. "He was the oldest parliamentarian in the country last year and was also probably the oldest candidate in 2014 Lok Sabha election," a JD-U leader said.

He was chief minister of Bihar as the head of the Janata Party government in 1979. Das, who was a Dalit leader, was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 1991 at the age of 70.

Kerala Tourism wins Golden Gate award ThiruvaNaNThaPuraM, March 6 (iaNS): Kerala Tourism's popular global multimedia campaign to promote the backwaters has won the Golden Gate award at the Internationale Tourismus-Borse Berlin (ITB-Berlin) - 2015, the world's leading travel trade event.

The state tourism department bagged the silver prize at the Das Golden Stadttor (Golden Gate) Awards presented in the German capital on Thursday night.

Tourism secretary G. Kamala Vardhana Rao, who is leading the state tourism delegation at the ITB 2015, and Suman Billa, joint secretary in the union tourism ministry and former state tourism secretary, received the prize at the ceremony in Berlin.

Conceptualised by Kerala Tourism's creative and marketing agency Stark Communications, 'The Great Backwaters' campaign had won the Golden Gate Gold Prize in the Print category at the ITB-Berlin last year.

Earlier, Kerala Tourism had won the Golden Gate Silver Prize for the hugely successful 'Your Moment is Waiting' ad campaign in the print category.

Presented every year at the ITB-Berlin, Golden Gate Awards, dubbed the 'Oscar in tourism communication', is considered the ultimate recognition in global tourism communication. The awards, in its 14th year, provides worldwide attention to the tourism industry.

"We are honoured by the remarkable recognition for the Great Backwaters Campaign at the world's biggest travel trade event," said Kerala Tourism Minister A.P.Anilkumar.

InternatIonal

the Morung express

Saturday 7 March 2015

Dimapur

9

Attack on US ambassador: Security questioned

SEOUL, MARCH 6 (AP): Police on Friday investigated the motive of the anti-U.S. activist they say slashed the U.S. ambassador to South Korea, as questions turned to whether security was neglected.

The attack Thursday on Mark Lippert, which prompted rival North Korea to gloat about “knife slashes of justice,” left deep gashes on his face and hand and damaged tendons and nerves. It also raised safety worries in a city with a reputation as a relatively lowrisk diplomatic posting, despite regular threats of war from North Korea.

While an extreme example, the attack is the latest act of political violence in a deeply divided country where some protesters portray their causes as matters of life and death.

Lippert, 42, was recovering well but complaining of pain in the wound on his left wrist and a finger where doctors repaired nerve damage, Severance Hospital official Yoon Do-Heum said in a televised briefing.

Doctors plan to remove the 80 stiches on Lippert’s face on Monday or Tuesday and expect him to be out of the hospital by Tuesday or Wednesday. Hospital officials say he may experience sensory problems in his left hand for several months.

Police, meanwhile, searched the offices and house of the suspect, Kim Ki-jong, 55, and seized hundreds of documents, books and computer files.

Police also obtained Kim’s telecommunication and financial transaction records

to help investigate how the attack was planned and whether others were involved, police officials said in a televised briefing.

Seoul Central District Court was expected to decide later Friday whether to grant a police request for Kim’s formal arrest. Police said the potential charges against Kim include attempted murder, assaulting a foreign envoy, obstruction, and violating a controversial law that bans praise or assistance for North Korea.

Police are also looking into Kim’s past travels to North Korea — seven times between 1999 and 2007 — during a previous era of inter-Korean cooperation, when South Korea was led by a liberal government.

Kim, who has a long history of anti-U.S. and violent protests, said he acted alone in the attack on Lippert. He told police he was protesting annual U.S.-South Korean military drills that started Monday — exercises that the North has long maintained are preparations for an invasion. Kim said the drills, which Seoul and Washington say are purely defensive, ruined efforts for reconciliation between the Koreas, according to police officials.

Security for Lippert was another focus.

U.S. ambassadors have security details, but their size largely depends on the threat level of the post. It’s not clear how many guards Lippert had at the downtown venue where he was attacked, but since Seoul is

seen as fairly safe, the number of guards would have been fewer than for American ambassadors in most of the Middle East.

The U.S. Embassy, citing security reasons, only informed South Korean police of what Lippert was doing a little before Thursday’s event, and it provided its own security detail for the ambassador, according to a Seoul police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing office rules. The U.S. Embassy in Seoul didn’t immediately respond to emailed questions about security for the ambassador.

By law, South Korea provides police protection for a U.S. ambassador only when the American Embassy requests it, according to South Korean police.

The U.S. Embassy didn’t request security for Lippert, but 29 officers were deployed as a precaution, although all but four were on standby outside the building, the officer said.

Even before the attack on Lippert, Kim was wellknown among police and activists as one of a hardcore group of protesters willing to use violence to highlight their causes. He received a three-year suspended sentence in 2010 for throwing a piece of concrete at the Japanese ambassador to Seoul while protesting Japan’s claim to small disputed islands that are occupied by South Korea.

More recently, Kim had been under investigation

by Seoul prosecutors after allegedly assaulting at least

South Koreans hold candles for a quick recovery of injured U.S. Ambassador Mark Lippert in downtown Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, March 5, 2015. Lippert was in stable condition after a man screaming demands for a unified North and South Korea slashed him on the face and wrist with a knife, South Korean police and U.S. officials said. (AP Photo

one public employee at an outdoor pop concert in January.

Officials at Seoul’s Jongno police station said they were aware of Kim’s violent history, but did not consider the possibility that he would show up at the breakfast meeting, despite his ties to the group that hosted it.

When Kim entered the hall where the attack occurred, a police officer asked one of the event organizers whether he should

be allowed to enter, Jongno district police Chief Yun Myung-sung told reporters. The organizing official answered that Kim could enter because he was associated with an organization that had been invited to the meeting.

A security expert called the police inept.

“There is no excuse for allowing a blacklisted person to enter the venue for an event like this,” said Yu Hyung-chang, a professor at Kyungnam University in

Iraqi forces push on to Tikrit as IS destroys ancient site BAGHdAd, MARCH 6 (AP): Iraqi forces pressed their offensive against the Islamic State group Friday, expecting to reach the outskirts of the militant-held city of Tikrit, a day after the extremists reportedly “bulldozed” a famed archaeological site in the area.

In Paris, the head of the U.N.’s cultural agency said the deliberate destruction of cultural heritage — such as the latest rampage at Iraq’s archaeological site of Nimrud — amounts to a “war crime.”

The discovery of the treasures of Nimrud’s royal tombs in the 1980s is considered one of the 20th century’s most significant archaeological finds. It dates back almost 3,000 years and has been compared to King Tutankhamun’s tomb in Egypt.

The battle to wrest Tikrit — Saddam Hussein’s hometown — from the Islamic State is a major test for the Iraqi forces and allied Shiite militias fighting on their side.

The governor of Salahuddin, Raed al-Jabouri, said that Iraqi forces expect to reach Tikrit later Friday. He told The Associated Press they still have not made it to Tikrit’s east airport as some reports have suggested.

Tikrit, 130 kilometers (80 miles) north of Baghdad, has been under the control of the Islamic State group since June, when the

Sunni militants made a lightning advance across northern Iraq, prompting Iraqi troops to flee and abandon their weapons.

On Monday, Iraqi security forces launched a large-scale operation in an effort to retake the city from the militant group, but the offensive was stalled somewhat, with military officials saying the militants strategically lined roads leading to the city with explosives and land mines.

Meanwhile, the Iraqi Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said late Thursday that the IS militants “bulldozed” the renowned archaeological site of the ancient city of Nimrud in northern Iraq.

The destruction is part of the group’s campaign to enforce its violent interpretation of Islamic law, destroying ancient archaeological sites it says promoted apostasy.

The ministry’s report could not be immediately independently confirmed. In Paris, UNESCO chief Irina Bokova appealed in a statement Friday to people around the world — “especially youth” — to protect “the heritage of the whole of humanity.”

Bokova denounced “this cultural chaos” and said she had alerted both U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.

“The deliberate destruction of

Dirty water kills more women than AIDS, diabetes or cancer NEW YORK, MARCH 6 (THOMSON REUTERS FOUNdATiON): Diseases spread through dirty water and poor sanitation are the fifth biggest killer of women worldwide, causing more deaths than AIDS, diabetes or breast cancer, researchers say.

Nearly 800,000 women die every year because they lack access to safe toilets and clean water, said the development organisation WaterAid, which analysed data from the Seattle-based Institute of Health Metrics research centre.

“This completely unacceptable situation affects women and girls’ education, their health, their dignity and ultimately, in too many cases, results in an early and needless death,” WaterAid CEO Barbara Frost said in a statement.

The only conditions more fatal for women than the lack of decent sanitation are heart disease, stroke, lower respiratory infections and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, according to the report. More than 1 billion wom-

en, or one in three women around the world, do not have access to a safe, private toilet, while 370 million - one in 10 - do not have access to clean water, according to WaterAid. More than 2 billion people gained access to clean water between 1990 and 2012, but nearly 750 million remain still lack what the United Nations recognises as a human right. Dirty water and poor sanitation are at the root of problems such as maternal and child mortality, and sexual violence.

Many women in developing countries give birth at home without access to clean water, exposing themselves and their babies to infections. Without safe toilets, women and girls have to venture outdoors to relieve themselves, often at night, putting them at risk of sexual harassment and assault.

Moreover, in many poor countries fetching water is considered a the responsibility of women and girls, who spend hours each day trekking to and from wells, keeping them from attending school or caring for their families.

cultural heritage constitutes a war crime,” she said. “I call on all political and religious leaders in the region to stand up and remind everyone that there is absolutely no political or religious justification for the destruction of humanity’s cultural heritage.”

Nimrud was the second capital of Assyria, an ancient kingdom that began in about 900 B.C., partially in present-day Iraq, and became a great regional power. The city, which was destroyed in 612 B.C., is located on the Tigris River just south of Iraq’s second largest city, Mosul, which was captured by IS in June.

The Islamic State extremists, who control a third of Iraq and Syria, have attacked other archaeological and religious sites, claiming that they promote apostasy. Their rampage against priceless cultural artifacts has sparked global outrage.

Earlier this week, a video emerged on militant websites showing Islamic State militants with sledgehammers destroying ancient artifacts at the museum in Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city that also fell into IS hands last year.

Last year, the militants destroyed the Mosque of the Prophet Younis — or Jonah — and the Mosque of the Prophet Jirjis, two revered ancient shrines in Mosul.

They also threatened to destroy Mosul’s 850-year old Crooked

Minaret, but residents surrounded the structure, preventing the militants from approaching.

Suzanne Bott, the heritage conservation project director for Iraq and Afghanistan in the University of Arizona’s College of Architecture, Planning and Archaeology, worked at Nimrud on and off for two years between 2008 and 2010.

She helped stabilize structures and survey Nimrud for the U.S. State Department as part of a joint U.S. military and civilian unit.

She described Nimrud as one of four main Assyrian capital cities that practiced medicine, astrology, agriculture, trade and commerce, and had some of the earliest writings.

“It’s really called the cradle of Western civilization, that’s why this particular loss is so devastating,” Bott said. “What was left on site was stunning in the information it was able to convey about ancient life.

“People have compared it to King Tut’s tomb,” she said.

Also Thursday, the IS militants set fire to some oil wells outside Tikrit, an Iraqi oil official said, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to talk to the media. The smoky fires were apparently meant to obscure targets from government bombing runs, part of the wide-scale operation that began Monday.

Changwon who served in South Korea’s presidential secret service for 20 years until 2000. “If you are going to let him enter, then the very basic thing to do is to have an officer stay close to him at all times.”

Yu said the police, knowing what they did about Kim, should have told the embassy about the danger and provided better security, especially since there has been a recent surge in anti-U.S. demonstrations.

While most South Koreans look at the U.S. presence favorably, America infuriates some leftists because of its role in Korea’s turbulent modern history.

Washington, which backed South Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War against the communist North, still stations 28,500 troops here, and anti-U.S. activists see the annual military drills with Seoul as a major obstacle to their goal of a unified Korea.

“South and North Korea should be reunified,” Kim shouted as he slashed Lippert with a 25-centimeter (10-inch) knife, police and witnesses said.

Lippert became ambassador last October, and is a popular figure. He’s regularly seen walking his basset hound, Grigsby, near his residence, not far from where the attack happened. His wife gave birth here and the couple gave their son a Korean middle name.

No country has reached gender equality: United Nations UNiTEd NATiONS, MARCH 6 (AP): The head of the U.N. agency promoting equality for women is lamenting that a girl born today will be an 81-year-old grandmother before she has the same chance as a man to be CEO of a company — and she will have to wait until she’s 50-years-old to have an equal chance to lead a country.

Twenty years after 189 countries adopted a blueprint to achieve equality for women, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said in an interview with The Associated Press that not a single country has reached gender parity and equality.

The executive director of UN Women spoke ahead of International Women’s Day on Friday and next week’s meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women. The commission will review the 150-page platform for action to achieve equality that was adoptedatthegroundbreakingU.N.women’s conference in Beijing in 1995. Then-U.S. first lady Hillary Clinton inspired delegates and women worldwide when she declared in a keynote speech: “Human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights.”

Although there has been progress since Beijing, especially in women’s health and girls’ education, Mlambo-Ngcuka said, there are fewer than 20 female heads of state and government, and the number of women lawmakers has increased from 11 percent to just 22 percent in the last two decades. “We just don’t have critical mass to say that post-Beijing women have reached a tipping point in their representation,” she

said. She said the under-representation of women in decision-making and violence against women are “global phenomena,” a result of male domination in the world that needs to change if women are ever to be truly equal.

The Beijing platform called for governments to end discrimination against women and close the gender gap in 12 critical areas including health, education, employment, political participation and human rights. For the first time, it recognized that women have the right to control their own sexuality without coercion, and reaffirmed their right to decide whether and when to have children.

Mlambo-Ngcuka said the issue of sexual and reproductive rights, which were the most controversial issues in Beijing, still stirs the biggest controversy in U.N. negotiations. Mlambo-Ngcuka said “the sheer scale of the use of rape that we’ve seen post-Beijing,” especially in conflict situations, “I think tells us that the women’s bodies are viewed not as something to respect, but as something that men have the right to control and to abuse.”

What all of this means, she said, is that world leaders must start speaking out “very strongly and very openly” against sexual violence and the denial of women’s rights — and promoting gender equality must be a top issue on their agenda, which it isn’t now. Mlambo-Ngcuka said the key is for men and boys to give up the privileges of patriarchy that they are born with.

Japan seeks to shed pacifist past Eyes MI6-style spy agency TOKYO, MARCH 6 (REUTERS): Japan is looking into creating an overseas intelligence agency possibly modelled on Britain’s MI6 spy service, ruling party lawmakers say, 70 years after Allied victors dismantled Japan’s fearsome military intelligence apparatus following World War Two. A new foreign intelligence agency would be an integral part of a security framework Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is building as he seeks to loosen the post-war pacifist constitution’s limits on the military’s ability to operate overseas.

The idea that Japan’s fragmented intelligence community needs a makeover has also gained momentum since the killing of two Japanese captives by Islamic State militants in Syria earlier this year showed how much Tokyo relied on friendly countries for information.

Abe has already set up a U.S.-style National Security Council and enacted strict state

secrets legislation, and is now working on laws to lift a ban on exercising the right of collective self-defence, or militarily aiding an ally under attack.

“To become a ‘normal country’, an intelligence agency is vital,” said Takushoku University professor Takashi Kawakami, using a phrase referring to shedding constitutional constraints that conservatives say limit Japan’s ability to defend itself.

Lawmakers in Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) hope to draft proposals in the autumn after visiting countries such as Britain, whose MI6 foreign intelligence service is a possible model.

If the LDP and the government conclude a new agency is needed, legislation could be enacted next year, LDP lawmaker Takeshi Iwaya told Reuters in a recent interview.

“In an age when we don’t know when or where Japanese lives will be at risk ... we need to collect more overseas information,” said Iwaya, who heads a team studying the issue.

Asked about the idea of a new spy agency in parliament recently, Abe said his government wanted to research the issue while working to bolster Japan’s intelligence capabilities.

Turf Battles, Wartime Memories Japan’s existing intelligence community has about 4,400 personnel split into units under different ministries, but has been hampered by a reluctance to share secrets across bureaucratic lines, experts say.

That reluctance to work closely stemmed partly from a lack of rules setting common standards for preventing leaks of classified information, a problem that has been eased by the state secrets law that took effect in December.

Turf battles, however, persist, complicating the outlook for a new intelligence agency.

The main actors in Japan’s intelligence community are the National Police Agency (NPA), the Justice Ministry’s Public Security Intelligence Agency (PSIA), the Defence

Ministry’s Defence Intelligence Headquarters, the Foreign Ministry, and the Cabinet Intelligence Research Office, whose staff come largely from other ministries.

“The NPA is very influential in the Abe government and Japanese bureaucracies,” said one security expert.

“If a new agency was established, probably the NPA would take the initiative and the Foreign Ministry and PSIA wouldn’t like that.”

The PSIA, with some 1,500 staff and whose main job is to monitor domestic subversive and extremist groups, could be a logical choice to form the core of a new agency, adding overseas counter-terrorism to its portfolio, some experts said.

Bureaucratic rivalries aside, politicians may be wary of setting up a new agency given public memories of a wartime military intelligence apparatus that operated outside civilian control.

Abe’s support ratings slipped in 2013 after his ruling bloc enacted the state secrets act

despite criticism it would muzzle the media and let officials hide misdeeds, and he is already pushing controversial changes to the scope for military actions.

Attitudes, however, may have shifted after the killing of the two hostages, Iwaya said.

“It was a fact that we didn’t have enough presence in the Middle East and had to rely mainly on foreign countries beginning with Jordan and Turkey,” he said. “So the public has begun to think they want information gathering and analysis to be done properly.”

If the government decided to create a new agency, building an organisation that could function as well as overseas counterparts would take decades.

After unifying oversight of different forms of intelligence gathering, Japan would have to boost the number of agents, send them abroad and develop contacts on the ground, Kawakami said.

“That would be intelligence gathering, not clandestine activity,” he said. “Even that would take at least 30 years.”

10

Dimapur

SPORTS

Saturday 7 March 2015

Blazers win fifth straight JCDK holds 1st Late Thevonu Trophy with victory over Mavericks

POrTLaND, march 6 (aP): The mood was somber in the Portland Trail Blazers' locker room after their 94-75 victory over the Dallas Mavericks. The win came at a cost, with Wesley Matthews lost for the NBA season because of a ruptured Achilles tendon.

"I make that same cut hundreds of thousands of times in my life," Matthews said. "I felt the initial pop.

And you guys could probably tell on the replay. I looked back — it feels like someone's kicked you. I was praying. I was praying someone was back there."

In the only other game, the Chicago Bulls rallied to beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 108-105, ending Russell Westbrook's tripledouble streak at four.

LaMarcus Aldridge had 17 points and 12 rebounds as the Blazers pulled away in the second half for for their fifth straight victory.

Dallas Mavericks' Rajon Rondo (9) shoots against Portland But shortly after came the Trail Blazers' Robin Lopez (42) during the first half of an NBA news about Matthews, who started every game this seabasketball game in Portland, Ore. on March 5. (AP Photo)

charity begins at Home

T

The Morung Express

he rape incident of February 23 and thereafter lynching of the alleged rapist by the mob has got a mixed response and condemnation from various part of the country. What coincide with the incident is the releasing of a documentary

by Leslie Udwin of the BBC called “India’s daughter” which was based on the Dec 16 2012 rape incident in Delhi and is now banned in India but has gone viral in YouTube and other torrents.

This documentary interview the convicts of the 16 Dec where one accused blame the girl for their act and it has cause uproar even in the parliament.

After the banned was imposed on the film by the government Leslie Udwin called the Indian society as sick society which perhaps is true.

How healthy is our society today? The debate on rape, misogyny or feminism revolves around patriarchy which the modern critics are trying to dismantle. But the recent case in Dimapur seems to be two fold, one targeted against patriarchy (the role of the Naga youth in the crime) and more specifically at the IBIs. The IBI are the illegal immigrants from Bangladesh who came in through the porous India-Bangla border in Assam in search of land and livelihood. These immigrant influxes has created a lot of rippling effect in the NE in the recent years leading to violence and even displacing thousands of innocent civilians. The problems cause by IBIs and migrant workers has been raise in public platform for a while now and the parading of an alleged rapist which succumbed to his injury sum up the public outrage. Illegal immigrants and migrants has become part of our society and some even members of family “Naganised” and protected and is part of the contributing factors in the development of our economy and to get rid of them without any concrete legislation will have a serious backlash within the state and beyond.

By getting rid of them does it means there will be no cross cultural discourse and we will remain exclusive, exotic or ethnocentric in our outlook. As long as this larger question of IBI and migrant workers are not solved by the states whose people and land are affected than shooting in Thangal Bazar (Manipur), killing in Kokhrazar (Assam) and arson in Dimapur (Nagaland) will continue unabated. Though Inner Line Permit (ILP) remains in place situation of unregulated influx of both IBI and migrants persist and the development of Look East Policy (LEP) will bring about more of unprecedented problems. And if it goes unchecked a close knitted society will be deranged and diffrent types of social evil will emerged.

What is more serious to a society than a moral breakdown? If we measure our lives today by western notion of culture we don’t have to be shock by the recent incident. But if we measure it with our cultural values there is a total failure in the society. The question is whether this traditional notion of value system can withhold the onslaught of modern values. Or shall the blame game be directed towards man made institutions like civil societies, churches and government who by themselves are helpless. Responsibility, civility and accountability finally rest in the hands of the citizens. The introduction of western culture has undermine our cultural values, the increase standard of living vis-a-vis lowering of moral values is a paradox of our time and can be generalize for Nagas living in Assam, Manipur, Nagaland or for that matter Myanmar. A society where beauty is measure by the amount of makeup and length of the skirt and standard of living by the number of cars and vehicle in the ga-

rage make no sense. The irony is that the God rush in the 20th century has turn into gold rush in 21st century which literally conveys the nature of a society from God centered to self centered society. The debate will continue but the solution lies within us and not necessarily in the high sounding law and the church.

Mobocracy is a dangerous paradigm where anarchy prevails. The IBIs and migrant workers have penetrated inside knowing the moral loophole in society which we ourselves have created and cultivated. The assertion of every known space by outsiders has created this dilemma. And certain things which we take for granted is turning our society into a disturb society with no pillar of hope in all spheres (political, social, economic, cultural). The situation now seems to have reached a tipping point and it is no more a wakeup call for the society anymore but a time to act, walk the talk and be perhaps a model society to others. Instead of throwing our towns, village, society out of gear it will be imperative if this time is used to retrospect the minute of our every action. What is a good society we always dream of will dawn sooner or later.

The challenges before us is not IBI or migrant workers. We have to put our house, schools, churches and society in order. We are equally responsible for the crimes around us. This may be a time to rebuild our society which has become utopia. Emotional outburst in road, streets, social media bring awareness and discussions and debate is part of everyday society but freedom can be restricted if it violate the rights of others. There seems to be a need for broader social framework which can outline where our society can go forward instead of labeling others as outlaw out rightly. Reverence for values, norms, culture has to be cultivated again and redirect our thinking and mindset towards women, children, elders and perhaps outsiders.

Imaginary notoriety that everyone from outside is illegal and are criminal minded state our lack of rational thinking. Social harmony is based on cooperation.

The killing of alleged rapist or parading naked is not a solution; if that’s what we called nipping in the bud we are losing our sensibility. The rationality should be allowing the law to take its own course as emotional outburst without rationality can have serious repercussion. The alleged rapist bears the brunt of his heinous crime and the perceived and real fear of Nagas emanating from IBIs and migrants.

How good and beneficial it will be if we channeled the energy to build a morally sound society with the same sense of urgency. Delhi after the Nirbhaya incident has not much change, rape continues unabated but the there is large amount of awareness among the general public due to mass uproar, media and active law enforcement.

And perhaps the end result is the coming of a self proclaimed anarchist Arvind Kejriwal to power who has promise better security and safety for the people and women in particular. Our problem is not in the by lanes of our colony or streets but a society where there is absence of social cohesion, age old values are lose and community feeling are radicalized. The hardworking, honest nature of our people is history, and what culminates is an intolerant society. We are equally responsible for what is becoming of our society. “Dimapur Spring” can be a starting point to launch a credible movement in order to solve the problem of illegal immigrants and migrants and to reshape and restructured a fail and ill society.

Isaac Inkah JNU New Delhi

son. Matthews was averaging 16.1 points and 3.7 rebounds. "It's tough, man.

He's the heart and soul of this team, he brings a lot to this team," Aldridge said.

"I've played with him seven, eight years now, so not having him out there is going to be tough."

Nicolas Batum added 15 points and a season-high 12 rebounds for Portland, which had four players in double figures despite coming off backto-back games. Monta Ellis and Amare Stoudemire each had 12 points for the Mavericks, who saw the return of veteran center Tyson Chandler after a threegame absence.

Chandler, who was out with a left hip injury, finished with four points and 14 rebounds. In Chicago, when E'Twaun Moore hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with 2.1 seconds left to put the Bulls up 107-105, Westbrook stepped out of bounds after taking the inbounds pass, not seeing

that Serge Ibaka was open for a potential tying shot.

"Just trying to get a good shot. I should have passed to Serge," Westbrook said. "That was a bad decision on my part.

He was open and I should have hit him." Westbrook had 43 points on 14-of-32 shooting and added seven assists and eight rebounds.

On Wednesday in Oklahoma City, he had career highs with 49 points and 16 rebounds and added 10 assists in an overtime victory over Philadelphia.

Westbrook was the first player to have four straight triple-doubles since Michael Jordan had seven in a row in 1989. The All-Star MVP scored at least 40 points for the third straight game. Westbrook wore a mask and a headband for the second straight game after breaking his right cheek on Friday in Portland. He had surgery on Saturday and sat out Sunday against the Los Angeles Lakers.

Kigwema, march 6 (mexN): The Japfüphiki Chokri Dzevi Krotho (KCDK) first general session cum 3rd edition of Late. Thevonü Memorial Trophy Tournament was held today here at Kimipfüphe ground, Kigwema, Kohima.

Chief guest N.N. Zhasa, IFS, Principal Secretary, Forest department in his address urge upon the people of the areas viz; Japfüphiki (Southern Angami) under Kohima district and Chokri Area under Phek district to pursue a truthful lives so as to preserve the lifestyle of the forefather. Stating fearing God in all aspects is the need of the hour, Zhasa added that respecting one another feelings, adopting forgiviness policy and reconciliation process should accommodate in one’s life and thus urged the JCDK to facilitate as prime role of the organization.

Preserving our cultural identity and promoting our forefathers rich traditional values should opt for joint venture by the two communities, Zhasa pointed out adding such practices

would enhance the old friendship relationship in the long run. Wishing the organization a progress and prosper endeavours, he urge them to build up a platform of togetherness and oneness from within amongst them.

Murohu Chotso, Deputy Commissioner (DC) Phek who graced the day as the guest of honour appeals the youngster to consider the day games as not merely for competition rather opted it as part of building the old friendship ties.

Mainatining that JCDK is also a revival organization in the form of preserving the forefathers’ friendship relationship which exists even before the separation of Chakhesang tribe from Eastern Angami, he said people of the two communities should maintain a healthy relationship with deeper bondage from before. Unity, peace and friendship should make prevail from among the 2 communities he asserted.

A new team of office bearers was installed comprises of the following. President-Kikhwesül

Thokhwe, vice presidentTavehu Thingo, general secretary-Vethikhoyi Khamo, Treasurer-Netsozü Tünyi, Sports and cultural secretary-Nolvi Sophie, publicity secretary-Tsielie Zhashümo, women coordinators-Khrieno Khora and Nusakholu Dawhuo with President SASA and CAYSA as coordinators.

The tourney and session is being held after every 4 alternate years, the tenure of office also 4 years tenure.

Earlier the inaugural function was led by JCDK general secretary Vethikhoyi Khamo, Zhavi, Pastor, KBC, JCDK President Kikhwesül Thokhwe delivered his presidential address, The funcyion was enlightened with the presentation of folk tune from Thukunulu and friends and western presented by Chietonu Hibo, while vice president Tavehu Thingo proposed vote of thanks.

Meanwhile, Southern Angami Sports Association (SASA) grabbed champion in both the Men football and women volleyball defeating Chokri Area Youth Sports Association.

public discourse

Jesus cursed the fig tree!

T

he Gospel Writers recorded the brothers and sisters of Jesus did not at the beginning know their eldest brother as the Christ but took him for a budding leader of the People. They advised him to show himself to the public at National occasions like the eminent Feast at Jerusalem of Judea. “Leave here and go to Judea that your disciples may see the works you are doing. For no man work in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself. ‘For even his brothers did not believe in him’”, recorded Jesus’ closest Apostle his book John 7: 2-5.

Jesus had no intention of becoming the Leader of the People and he told his brothers he is not going to Jerusalem ahead of the Feast.

Jesus had serious oppositions in Judea from the Religious Leaders, Scholars and the Authorities and has information they would seek to arrest him during the Feast they expected him to attend and do him to death.

Jesus delayed his departure for Jerusalem and people were searching for him at the Feast. It was only when the Feast was well in progress that he started for Jerusalem, probably, to cut short the Journey time. Jesus planned to go by the short-cut to Jerusalem through Samaria but the Samaritan Village came to know of his going to Jerusalem and they refused him passage through the Village.

His Apostles, Jacob (James) and John –sons of Zebedee- known as the Sons of Thunder suggested they “bid” Fire from heaven and burn the Samaritan Village! Jesus rebuked them.

Jesus followed the longer route along the River Jordan through the strategic City of Jericho -the oldest City in the world- to Judea. At the time of Jesus, the city of Jericho was already more that 5000 years old.

An old big and hollow Sycamore Tree in the city -probably an offshoot of the Original tree up which Zacchaeus must have climbed when Jesus spotted him- still stands protected by the Roadside. The Gospel Recorder indicate Jesus stayed at Zachaeus that night and today 2000 years latter, we still hear loud, clear and the immortal impressive talk that went between the unconventional Guest and the high Tax Official Host at dinner that night!

The Road from Jericho to Jerusalem, through tree less, river less bone dry ravines without a trace of Ants, Spiders, Termites, Fly and Insects; must be a good days’ foot journey, and even today, it is not the safest of the Roads in modern Israel. Jesus and his Disciples must have walked fast and they reached Jerusalem early Evening. Jesus went straight to the Temple and “when he had looked around at every thing; as it was already late he went out to Bethany with the twelve” -Mark 11: 11. He

saw the things that were going on in the premises of the Temple; and as Night was approaching and he went back to Bethany and stayed with one Simon the Leper.

Very early the next morning, without food, Jesus and his disciples started for the Temple: “He was hungry. And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. And he said to it ‘May no one ever eat fruit from you again’”. The non-apostle Gospel Writer Mark recorded Jesus cursed the fig tree in the hearing of his Apostles Mark. 11: 12-14.

In great probability Mark also must have been with the Apostles for, no one not present at the place and at the time of the arrest of Jesus at the garden of Gethsemane could have described the scene in such intimate detail as Mark did. His Book is short but whatever he wrote about the Gospel, was done in great detail of a man who say and heard the details.

The most convincing clue in found in Mark 14: 50-52 and Mark wrote: “And they all forsook him and fled. And a young man followed him –Jesus- with nothing but a linen cloth about his body; and they seized him, but he left the linen cloth and ran away naked”. When Mark Wrote this portion the first time from his memory, after the resurrection of Jesus, Mark must have laughed at himself

at recollecting the way he ran away that night for his life!

The next day Peter observed to Jesus: “Master, look! The fig tree which you cursed has withered” and Mark recorded it “withered to the roots” Why Jesus cursed the fig tree when the tree was out of the season of bearing fruit? This is a puzzling question in the New Testament.

God cursed the Serpent for beguiling Eve to eat the fruit God forbade Adam and his wife from eating it. It is surprisingly interesting to note Jesus himself gave the answer: he did it for the Apostles “to have faith in God”. The son of God cares for the believer’s faith in God! Faith is the greatest thing in Man’s relationship with God. God has given Man all Authority to choose Blessing or Curse. God is the Lord of even the Sabbath, he has the right to everything in Man even for allowing one go to Him without death and God has given Man every right to choose the Right or the Wrong. And faith in God enables man to choose what is Right from what is Wrong. Man has every Authority to choose and the United Nations recognize this as HUMAN RIGHT. Christian Nagaland seems to have an unsure misconception of the Idea of Naga OATH and CURSE. The Scripture reminds the Believers to always stand for the Oath of Truth and never ever for LIE. Thepfulhouvi Solo

Some issues and practices in education – A public debate 1. Work Experience: This curriculum is a modified name of the erstwhile SUPW. This subject was suggested and propounded by Mahatma Gandhi. Diarchy in the Indian Provinces came to an end with the Government of India Act, 1935, installing popular Governments in the Provinces. With this new development, education came in the hands of the popular Provincial Governments. Gandhi brought up a new scheme of education in the All India National Education Conference held at Wardha on October 22 & 23, 1937. This scheme, till today, is called “Wardha Scheme of Education” or popularly known as “Basic Education.” One of the important deliberations in the Conference was on “Basic Education.” This is purely activity-centred curriculum, aiming at skill development among the pupils in handicraft at Elementary level of schooling. Gandhi’s scheme was based on Indian economic condition of the time, and as such it was relevant. Schools had to self-generate funds through Basic education system. Part of the sale proceeds of craft items was meant to go to the school and part to the pupils for self-support. Gandhi’s policy on work experience for children while in school was in accord to the Indian economic culture, and with due stress on continuity of indigenous crafts. The idea of skilling the boys and girls in handicrafts has the basis of sound philosophy of self-reliance and cultural continuity. India is known for her rich creativity and dexterity in craftwork.

For that matter, Nagas are no less.

On the practical analysis, the subject, no doubt, has impacted basic knowledge of craftworks both among the boys and girls in schools

where the subject was taught in deed and spirit. Within no time original idea failed to materialise on account of un-affordability for provision of funds for raw materials, lack of work rooms for carpentry, knitting, embroidery, etc.; shortage or absence of expert teachers for the subject, and most importantly, students had no time to devote to craft training in the face of increasing subjects and curricular contents. Now schools and children are grappling with this experience. Sadly today, it is not ‘Work Experience’, but ‘Worst Experience’.

This subject has become a big liability and burden for parents; every child needs to be bought an item worth anywhere between Rs. 100 – 500 and submit, or else some older member in the family has to make them, if not, miss some Grade. One can imagine the burden of parents where there are several school-going children in a family.

Gandhi’s Basic Education and its relevance has remained a debate in the circle of academicians and writers. The School Department authorities would do well to re-consider on this subject. The state has the discretion to make some changes in the syllabi and subjects. If the subject has to continue, this subject must find allotted period in the daily routine, and actual activity must be performed in the classroom. For the subject to be effectual there is the need for engaging elders/experts for practical instruction. This proposition would entail some financial implication.

If it sounds burdensome, drop the subject. A practical component can jump in in lieu of Work Experience subject. Environmental Education can embrace on the importance of practical observation, experimen-

tation and analysis. Environmental Studies (EVS) has assumed global importance for obvious reasons. (No space for discussion on this topic now).

Back to craft learning, we can still make education relevant to our economic condition and, at the same time, promote indigenous crafts in a more popular manner. Naga traditional bags should be improvised for use by students of schools and colleges. This policy can be enforced for everybody’s benefit: local weavers will have massive market, at the same time girl students can learn at home.

With this culture-relevant policy parents’ economy will be improved by way of not spending on expensive branded bags.

2. Non-Detention Policy: The Nation-wide policy of Non-detention of students at Elementary stage has come under a critical review among the educationists. This is a policy for alleviation of illiteracy in the country. This is the other face of the “Free and Compulsory Education” Policy.

To be precise, Non-Detention policy is not for the progressive society; rather it retrogrades to lethargy and insincerity. This system has the danger of compromising quality learning among the students. One sincerely feels states must be given the option of adopting it or not, for this yardstick is not applicable in all the Indian states. Actually speaking, many states have attained high rate of literacy, and the level of knowledge and competency in India has soared significantly.

The states must avail of the proviso of articles relating to Education in Concurrent List where Education is a subject on which the state has consti-

tutional right to decide on certain Education policy. This allowance makes the state to adopt the policy best suited to its people and situation.

3. The century-old practice of Teachers’ Day collection: Forced begging on the streets must go. Dr. Radha Krishnan, the Philosopher, the Teacher and the great statesman of the great India would never have invented the idea of honouring meritorious teachers with alms collection. Sending out innocent and unquestioning children in the heat of September with tins in hands is absolutely unwanted duty; it is outright indignity and cruelty by modern judgment. Equally pitiable are those who have less resistance capacity and non-smart. They end up camouflaged in paper clothe in one trip to the market during the week before Teachers’ Day. Just because the past did fail to realise that a teacher (a worthy teacher) deserved recognition and decoration with the earmarked fund from the department, it is not illegal to start a new thought. Grand programme can be possible without creating financial crisis. Forced slicing of funds from other departments in the district, deduction of teachers’ salaries and begging on the streets for celebration of Teachers’ Day is a complete disgrace to teachers. It is like children asking father money to buy his gift for the Father’s Day. This would be a happier thing to do with children where there is love, affection and fun.

This year onward, let us see that our children are kept in the classroom, and not on the streets.

Dr. K. N. Nekha, Asso. Prof.

Wangkhao Govt. College Mon

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.

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to g e n i m n e d t e …lis ook help elop ob nd dev i d u a a x ue a q l i e r n to ech t y m

Hollywood actor Sylvester Stallone is bringing "The Expendables" action to television. The hit movie franchise is being developed as an event series with Stallone executive producing alongside the film's producer Avi Lerner. The TV adaptation is described as a fun action drama that unites iconic TV stars as a new team of highly skilled heroes who are on a mission to stop a dangerous terrorist, according to Deadline, reports aceshowbiz.com. Greg Coolidge, Kirk Ward and Shane Brennan will write the TV adaptation in addition to serving as executive producers. Brennan will also serve as showrunner for the event series.

No actor is cast for the project yet. "The Expendables" film franchise stars Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Statham and Terry Crews among other A-listers. It has spanned three movies.

Harrison Ford 'battered' in plane crash, 'but okay' Veteran Hollywood actor Harrison Ford is "battered, but okay" after his plane crashed onto a golf course, says his son. Harrison was rushed to a hospital after his vintage World War II training plane crash landed on a golf course here on Thursday. His son Ben Ford, has been updating fans on micro-blogging website Twitter about his father's condition.

While reports said Harrison was seriously injured, Ben wrote: "At the hospital. Dad is ok. Battered, but ok! He is every bit the man you would think he is. He is an incredibly strong man. Thank you all for your thoughts and good vibes for my dad.(sic)" An eyewitness at the golf course told tmz.com that she heard the engine sputter and watched Harrison's plane do a "nose dive straight on the 8th hole tee box". "I was one of the first people to run from the hole toward the plane. Four to five men pulled the pilot out of the plane. They got him away from the plane. They were concerned it would catch fire," said the eyewitness. A video obtained by the site showed Harrison lying on the grass while being treated by paramedics after the crash.

Justin Bieber has 'man crush' on Ben Affleck Singer Justin Bieber has a man crush on Ben Affleck because he thinks the "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" actor has a "cool vibe".

The 21-year-old singer is a huge admirer of the 42-year-old actor because of his success and the way he conducts himself, reports femalefirst. co.uk. When asked who his man crush is, Bieber named Affleck, adding: "I think his vibe is cool."

Bieber also admitted he wishes he had an alter-ego like Affleck's superhero character so he could just disappear when the attention from the paparazzi and the public got too much.

"I wish I had the Batman thing where people didn't know I was Bruce Wayne. Like I had a costume or something," he told Men's Health magazine.

It's a wrap on ABCD 2 The curtains have come down on the shooting of Remo D'Souza's "AnyBody Can Dance 2", revealed the film's lead actress Shraddha Kapoor, who says she'll "miss" the fun.

"It's officially a film wrap on #ABCD2 :( Going to miss it so much...going to miss my boys sooo much. It's been the most fun experience ever," Shraddha posted on Twitter on Friday. In the film, which is a sequel to Remo's 2013 dance-based movie, Shraddha has been paired with Varun Dhawan for the first time. Parts of the film have also been shot in the lively environs of Las Vegas, and if Varun is to be believed, it was fun unlimited. "The USA schedule of #abcd2 is done never has soo much fun on any film energy, passion, love and DANCE thank u," Varun had posted earlier.

I am against censorship': Aamir Khan

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“I am against censorship but in favour of the rating system instead. I think we should not try and pre-empt what the censor certification (of a film) will be and how members will react. I think we should allow them to see it in an unbiased manner and without any pressure. But in a democratic country like India, where there is freedom of speech, it will be quite difficult to not allow a film to release on unreasonable grounds,” said Aamir, a special guest at the do.

The actor also expressed surprise over the recent censor hassle that NH10 faced. “I am surprised to hear that the film was (initially) denied certification. This is something extremely unusual and unprecedented,” he said.

Meanwhile, Bose ex-

Dimapur

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the woman bringing weaving back

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F

'The Expendables' to be turned into TV series

amir Khan seems to be taking his role of Bollywood’s Mr Social Cause very seriously. After generating ample heat over controversial remarks on the AIB Roast, Aamir Khan on Wednesday trained his guns on film censorship patterns in India. The occasion was the trailer launch of Margarita With A Straw, Amu director Shonali Bose’s new film starring Kalki Koechlin.

The issue of censorship arose given the bold theme of the film, which sees Kalki playing a homosexual woman suffering from cerebral palsy. With recent censor storms involving The Messenger and Dum Laga Ke Haisha (a delightful film that ran into trouble over the use of the word ‘lesbian’ in a sequence), did a film as audacious as Shonali Bose’s latest fear censor objections?

7 March 2015

FaustineanSteinmetz:

My son inspires me every day: Miranda Kerr Supermodel Miranda Kerr says seeing the world through the eyes of her and former husband Orlando Bloom's son Flynn is very refreshing. The 31-year-old mother of one said her keys to success are 'Health, love, happiness, family and friendship', reported E!Online.

"Flynn inspires me every day. Just seeing the world through his eyes is so refreshing. Nothing matters more than the simple things in life like family, health, and love," she said. Kerr credits meditation, prayer behind staying sane with such a crazy year-round schedule.

"My continual practise of daily meditation, prayer, and the use of affirmations are some of the key elements that have helped me grow and develop over the years.

They've kept me focused and positive through various transitions in life.

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Saturday

Entertainment

The Morung Express

pressed concern over how the Censor Board would react to her film, which has won acclaim in the global film festival circuit.

austine Steinmetz has ploughed her own furrow - and won NewGen sponsorship from the British Fashion Council - as a hand-weaving wizard. Her studio, tucked away in an overgrown, rubbish-strewn garden in Seven Sisters, London, is accordingly lofi. The giveaway for those peering in at the window, wondering whether this shed houses a burgeoning fashion label? Ten looms.

Keen to rebel against things that were ‘flat’, having completed a master’s in textiles at Central Saint Martins and an internship at Jeremy Scott, Paris-born Steinmetz bought a loom on a whim for £150 at the Handweavers Studio, a favourite haunt in Finsbury Park.

She taught herself to weave from YouTube and made a pair of jeans in mohair wool. It took two weeks - or ‘all of David Copperfield,’ she laughs. ‘When I started to weave I was a bit

The designer, Faustine Steinmetz

nervous, so listening to an audiobook helped me to relax and develop my technique.’ She added to the collection slowly, and the east London boutique Hostem bought it exclusively.

For her first London Fashion Week presentation last September, she produced a series of handwoven items made out of recycled denim. ‘There is a shop in Whitechapel that has mountains of old jeans, so I bought about 40 pairs for £10, unravelled them with a pair of tweezers and then felted them back together,’ she says. She also experimented with shibori, a Japanese dyeing tech-

Denim looks from Steinmetz' spring summer 2015 collection

nique, on twill separates hand-painted to look like denim; made a swimsuit out of handwoven elastics; created an ensemble out of cotton yarns, laid together and bonded into a fabric; and made a jeans-andjacket combo out of recycled denim ripped into

ruffled strips.

Steinmetz wants to keep the brand cult, for now (only those in the know will realise her playful security tags are in fact brooches), and to continue to do presentations rather than catwalk shows. Working in her favour is the fact

that she is currently relatively uncontactable: she doesn’t have a phone. That is set to change, though.

‘I’m now down two friends because of it - they’re so angry they can’t reach me. So I’m getting a new phone, a Sim card, I’m going to be a proper person now.’

Indian superhero, gangster drama by Dev Patel in offing

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fter garnering kudos for his acting prowess, British actor of Indian descent Dev Patel is ready to take the next step in the world of filmmaking. He's working on his own projects to narrate stories revolving around India and even has plans to introduce an Indian superhero to the world with his movie.

“One of them is a gangster film based in Mumbai.

Another one is basically like kind of a superhero film with a very unlikely hero in it. The hero will be an Indian,” Dev told IANS over phone from Berlin.

What aspect of filmmaking is he trailing into with the

projects? “I will be producing and acting in the projects,” added the 24-yearold actor, who catapulted to global recognition with the Oscar winning "Slumdog Millionaire".

After "Slumdog Millionaire", in which he traced the life of a Mumbai slum dweller, Dev went on to do projects like "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" and “The Last Airbender”. His latest release in the US is "Chappie", a film about a robot that can feel and think. The film will hit Indian screens on March 13.

Talking about India and films

Christina Aguilera not acting like a diva on sET

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hristina Aguilera's return to "The Voice" reportedly created a nightmare for the show's crew. Radar Online quoted a socalled insider as saying, "Christina is such a terror to work with. She is frequently late and she doesn't even seem to care or apologize for holding up the filming of the show."

"She just has ridiculous demands since coming back as a judge, and everyone is wishing she did not return!" so the source described her "on-set diva antics." The source added, "To make matters worse, she is constantly fighting with Adam [Levine]. They cannot stand each other."

It's additionally reported that NBC actually wanted to have two female and two male judges with either Shakira or Gwen Stefani returning, but Xtina allegedly said "absolutely not, and that she would be the only female judge or she would not do it at all."

Gossip Cop, however, begs to differ. The site brands the story as fake since Christina is currently not shooting "The Voice". The pre-taped episodes were filmed three months ago and the live episodes won't start until April. The singer is now filming her guest appearance on "Nashville" instead.

A source also tells the site the diva rumor is "stupid," adding that "if she is so awful," fellow coach Pharrell Williams would not want to work on an album with her.

around it, one can't help but ask Dev about what can bring him to Bollywood. “Script! I just look for stuff that can challenge me. So if the script is challenging, then I will absolutely do the movie,” he said. A Bollywood film, without a dance sequence, seems incomplete. But Dev has no qualms about admitting that dancing is not his forte -- despite having grooved to A.R. Rahman's Oscar winning number "Jai ho" at the end of "Slumdog Millionaire". “I'm really bad at dancing,” Dev confessed.

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Neil Patrick Harris won’t host Oscars again

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eil Patrick Harris will not host the Oscars again because his “family and soul” couldn’t take it. The 41-yearold actor who hosted this year’s Academy Awards insists that he’s not going to do it again because it took up so much time.

“I don’t know that neither my family nor my soul could take it.

It’s a beast. It was fun to check off the list, but for the amount of time spent and the understandable opinionated response, I

don’t know that it’s a delightful balance to do every year or even again,” he said.

Harris had a mixed reception to his hosting stint but insists he hasn’t paid too much attention to the response.

“I didn’t keep up with it obsessively, but it was interesting to see just what people thought landed and didn’t. “... my job was to try and keep things as light and specific to this year’s set of films as possible. And if people are critical of that, it’s a big giant platform, so I would assume that they would be.”

Martha Stewart signs up to roast JB on Comedy Central

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er huge cooking repertoire includes everything needed for the perfect roast - from gravy to a tender piece of meat. But Martha Stewart's next roast will feature a rather unusual entree - the pop star Justin Bieber.

The TV personality and businesswoman will be among the celebrities set to poke merciless fun at the singer at the Comedy Central special which will air on March 30. The cable channel announced Thursday that rapper Snoop Dogg and basketball great Shaquille O'Neal will also be joining in the fun.

The roast will be hosted by comedian Kevin Hart who promised he's going to go hard on The Bieber.

'I'm going to kill him,' said Hart. 'I'm going to give him a couple rim shots

he's not expecting.' Ludacris will also take a turn on the stage along with comedians Hannibal Buress, Chris D'Elia, Natasha Leggero and Jeffrey Ross. 'Justin has been asking us for a few years to roast him,' Kent Alterman, Comedy Central's President of Content Development and Original Programming.

'We just kept telling him to go create more source material first. We're thrilled he listened.'

The singer, who just turned 21, has given the roasters plenty of ammunition with his Calvin Klein underwear shoot and recent blonde dye job.

He told Ellen DeGeneres in January he's looking forward to the TV special.

'I think it’s cool just to be able to laugh at yourself,' he said.

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Tomorrow maTch

Sun, 08 mar —04:30 am IST Sun, 08 mar — 08:50 am IST

Dhoni Powers Team inDia inTo QuarTers • India beat West Indies by 4 wickets • India through to World Cup quarter-finals • West Indies 182 all out; Shami 3-35 • India 185-6; Dhoni 45 not out

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Dhoni breaks Ganguly's record of most away oDi wins Perth, March 6 (PtI): Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Friday surpassed former skipper Sourav Ganguly as the most successful Indian captain in terms of ODI victories achieved on foreign shores.

The four-wicket win over the West Indies in the ICC World Cup 2015 here was Dhoni's 59th while Ganguly had 58 victories under his belt. The current Indian captain played a key role with an unbeaten 45-run knock, helping his side to a hard-fought win at the WACA. Under his leadership, India won the 2007 World T20 and the 2011 World Cup at home, besides the Champions Trophy in England two years ago. He was also at the helm when India achieved the number one Test rankings.

NZ vs AFG AUS vs SL

Djokovic gives serbia 1-0 lead against Croatia

KralJeVO, March 6 (aFP): World number one Novak Djokovic got hosts Serbia off to a winning start in their Davis Cup World Group first round tie against Croatia on Friday.

Djokovic started both the first and second set with a break easing past 158th-ranked Mate Delic 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 in 1hr 30min.

Only in the third set did Delic, 21, show some resistance, winning four games, but without threatening the eight-time Grand Slam winner. The 27-year-old Djokovic, whose opponent did not have a single break point, relied on a solid service. "Mate is a talented player with a lot of potential to reach the top in the tennis world, but I'm happy with my performance and that I managed to win," Djokovic said. In Friday's second tie Viktor Troicki, who returning to the national team after serving a one-year doping suspension, will play Croatia's teen star Borna Coric. Coric, 18, shocked former Wimbledon and US Open champion Andy Murray at the Dubai Open last month. Serbia are favourites with Croatia playing without injured US Open champion Marin Cilic.

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Novak Djokovic of Serbia celebrates after winning his match over Croatia's Mate Delic during their Davis Cup World Group first round tennis match between Serbia and Croatia, in Kraljevo, Serbia, Friday, March 6. (AP Photo)

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Kvitova withdraws from Indian Wells

New DelhI, March 6 (aFP): Reigning Wimbledon champ Petra Kvitova has pulled out of next week`s Indian Wells hardcourt tournament, saying she is fatigued and needs more time to rest.

"Unfortunately I have been feeling exhausted on the court in recent weeks and unable to compete at 100 percent," she said. "I will be taking some time out in order to rest and restore my energy levels for the rest of the season."

The 24-year-old Czech lost in the quarter-finals at the Qatar Open in Doha Indian batsman M S Dhoni watches his shot during their Cricket World Cup Pool B match against the West Indies in Perth, Australia on March 6. (AP Photo) last month, giving her an 11-4 record this season.

Perth, March 6 Kvitova has won 15 (PtI): Defending chamsingles titles and earned pions India on Friday survived a scare before defeat- New DelhI, March 6 (ageN- target of 183 runs, India started the 182. All five bowlers Dhoni used today more than $17 million in ing a spirited West Indies cIes): Prime Minister Narendra chase on a cautious note but soon performed well, but the two new-ball her career, including a secby four wickets in a group Modi was among the first to con- found themselves fighting for the bowlers in Mohammed Shami and ond Wimbledon crown last league encounter to romp gratulate India on their four-wicket match losing four wickets even be- Umesh Yadav were exceptional. They year. She also won Wimbleinto the quarter-finals of win over West Indies in Perth. Skip- fore hitting 100-run mark at WACA. took three and two wickets respectivethe ICC Cricket World Cup per Mahendra Singh Dhoni steered However, the skipper in company ly. Shami was later adjudged Man of here with four wins on the the team to victory after the top-or- with a sensible Ravichandran Ash- the Match for his spell of 8-2-35-3.

With the win, the defending chamtrot. Chasing a modest tar- der failed against an inspired Carib- win guided the team home, with 65 balls remaining. Dhoni returned un- pions are assured of a quarter-final get of 183, India's top-order bean attack today. spot. India started their title defence Modi took to micro-blogging site defeated with 45 runs off 56 balls. struggled due to poor shot In a low-scoring match, Indian on a rousing note defeating arch-rivals selection before skipper Twitter to hail the win and said, “The Mahendra Singh Dhoni's Men in Blue seem to be having a bowlers dictated the terms in the first Pakistan, then continued with wins lONDON, March 6 composed unbeaten in- great tournament!” Chasing a tricky innings, restricting the West Indies to over South Africa and UAE. (aFP): Boxing legend nings of 45 helped them Marvin Hagler`s fabled reach the target in 39.1 clash with Sugar Ray Leonovers and ensure their ard was the superfight of The winner determined by a a revelation as a finisher in the modern New DelhI, March 6 (IaNs): fourth consecutive win in Indian batting legend Sachin Ten- jury of 50 players, commentators ODIs.Hispower-packedperformances its day -- but the massivethe tournament. ly anticipated showdown However, it wasn't as dulkar and present One-Day Inter- and cricket writers from around the have played a key role in India’s stagger- between Manny Pacquiao commanding as the previ- national (ODI) skipper Mahendra world - will be announced in the ing success in the last few years which and Floyd Mayweather will ous three wins as the bat- Singh Dhoni along with three other March issue of the magazine which includes clinching the 2011 World Cup. eclipse it, he says.

The Cricket Monthly's 50-member ting was scrappy, the field- cricketers are the leading contend- will be published next week.

Speaking with AFP durTendulkar has had one of the jury includes legendary cricketers Ian ers to clinch the crown of the greating shoddy with as many as ing a visit to Hong Kong, the best careers in ODIs spanning 23 Chappell, Clive Lloyd, Martin Crowe, four catches being dropped est one-day cricketer of all time.

60-year-old said the fight Former Australian opener Adam years. He scored 18,426 runs from Rahul Dravid, Ricky Ponting and between the world famous and the bowling lacking discipline at times with 16 Gilchrist, Pakistan fast bowling leg- 463 matches at an average of 44.43. Graeme Smith; veteran commenta- welterweights in Las Vewides during the West In- end Wasim Akram and West Indies The little master also has 49 hun- tors Tony Cozier, Mark Nicholas, Mike gas on May 2 would be the great Vivian Richards are the other dreds in the format and 96 fifties. He Haysman and Sanjay Manjrekar; and "biggest fight in history", dies innings. writers Gideon Haigh, Mike Coward, By virtue of this victory, nominees in the list of an exercise also has a double ton to his credit. regardless of who wins.

Dhoni on the other hand has been Suresh Menon and Mike Selvey.

India stretched their win- conducted by the Cricket Monthly.

The fight has echoes of ning run at the global event Hagler`s 1987 showdown to eight matches stretching sastrous start as they lost from both Taylor and Ke- most capped ODI players in of India. Earlier, Indian with Leonard, also staged from 2011 edition's group both the openers cheaply mar Roach which had him this team got together and bowling unit again showed in Las Vegas, which saw looked like getting things consistency as they bun- him lose on points in a deleague match against West and the middle order bats- in some sort of bother. men never really looked But it was a well dis- back on track when Raina dled out West Indies for a cision which remains conIndies in Chennai.

The eight wins thus comfortable at the crease. guised short ball from An- flashed at a rising delivery paltry 182 in 44.2 overs. troversial to this day. PacA fit-again Mohammed quiao and Mayweather are equals the record of Sourav Shikhar Dhawan (9) again dre Russell that brought from Dwayne Smith to give Ganguly-led team's effort went for a Jerome Taylor about his end going for Ramdin his third catch of Shami (3/35 in 8 overs), considered to be the best during the 2003 edition in delivery outside the off- an ugly-looking pull-shot. the day.Ravindra Jadeja's coming back after a match's "pound-for-pound" boxSouth Africa. Dhoni, who stump which was not of He was off balance and discomfort against fast rest, was the best of the lot ers of their generation and had a poor run of form in drivable length and was also eyes were not on the and rising deliveries is well as he troubled the batsman their $200 million clash will recent times played an in- caught by Darren Sammy ball as it went straight to known and it wasn't any with both pace and bounce. finally happen after years of the fielder at deep fine leg. better on the day as he also He bowled a deadly first- failed negotiations. nings of substance that had at second slip.

Rohit Sharma (7) got Kohli's departure at the fell prey to the pull-shot be- spell where he took both three boundaries and a six "Whether Pacquiao Dwayne Smith and Chris loses in the first round, off 56 deliveries. West Indies fuller delivery from Tay- end of 15th over created ing caught in the deep.

Dhoni played a pa- Gayle out of the equation, whether he knocks out pacers' 19 wides also helped lor and the outside edge more pressure on Rahane, India's cause after a wobbly was taken by wicketkeeper who was completely out tient knock and was ready to seize the momentum in Mayweather in the first of sorts as he even failed to to wait for the loose deliv- favour of Mahendra Singh round, it`s still going to be start got them off track. The Denesh Ramdin.

Virat Kohli (33, 5x4) cash in on free-hits. He was eries as he knew that the Dhoni and co. He was com- the biggest fight in history," Indian batting was put to test for the first time in the played some crisp on drives finally out fishing a Roach target was always in reach. plemented well by the quar- said Hagler. Mayweather, tournament even though it as well as a lovely cover delivery to Ramdin behind He ran well between the tet of Umesh Yadav (2/42 in 38, has previously recalled was a smallish target. The drive adding 43 runs for the the stumps. He asked for a wickets and got a six when 10 overs), Mohit Sharma watching the Hagler-Leonpace and bounce of the third wicket with Ajinkya 'review' but umpire Nigel he slashed hard at Russell (1/35), Ravichandran Ash- ard clash.

"I remember being WACA strip did play its part Rahane (14). Till the time Llong's decision was up- delivery. With Ravichan- win (1/38) and Ravindra but more importantly, the Kohli was at the crease, he held and his miserable stay dran Ashwin for company, Jadeja (2/27) as West Indies a kid and saying there the invaluable 51 runs add- looked no better than min- would never be another shot selection of the bats- looked compact most of of 34 balls ended. the times although there Suresh Raina (22) and ed for the seventh wicket nows UAE during the entire fight bigger than this," he men was pretty poor. said in an interview before India got off to a di- were a few good deliveries skipper Dhoni, the two sealed the match in favour duration of their innings.

Prime Minister Modi congratulates Men in Blue

mcLean Park, Napier Sydney cricket Ground

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don in 2011.

Kvitova gave no timeline for her return. She has frequently complained of suffering from breathing and virus issues over the course of her career.

"I am extremely disappointed to have to withdraw from the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, one of my favourite tournaments on the calendar," she said on her website.

Legend Hagler hails 'historic' Mayweather-Pacquiao fight

Sachin, Dhoni to vie for greatest ODI cricketer crown

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his 2007 fight against Oscar De la Hoya.

The American, who has a 47-0 record with 26 knockouts, is homing in on the iconic 49-0 record of 1950s legend Rocky Marciano, who retired as an undefeated heavyweight champion.

Pacquiao, a devout Christian, by contrast holds a record of 57-5 with two draws and 38 knockouts.

The 36-year-old Philippines boxing hero earlier this month called the faceoff with undefeated Mayweather "the real fight of my life".

Hagler was undisputed world middleweight champion for seven years until his fight with Leonard at Caesar`s Palace, wich was dubbed "The Super Fight".

Reluctant to draw parallels with the PacquiaoMayweather clash, he said that both fighters would just be focused on the result. "Once you start get-

ting yourself into the fight, it`s not about the money, it`s about the win." Hagler said it was too early to call a favourite, despite Las Vegas oddsmakers pegging Mayweather as having the upper hand, noting that "anything can happen from now until May." "Mayweather, he`s using his head, he`s using his skills and strategy and let`s hope Pacquiao don`t fall into his tricks."

Hagler said that if Pacquiao won, he would be "a worldwide figure, bigger than what he expected". He was in Hong Kong with the Laureus Sports for Good Foundation, a group which provides coaching and education to young people in the most deprived environments around the world.

"To see the kids` smile on their face it brings a smile to my face too," said Hagler, who has been involved with the foundation for over a decade.

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