3rd April 2014

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The Morung Express

Dimapur VOL. IX ISSUE 90

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www.morungexpress.com

India Madhuri Dixit committed named most to noninspirational proliferation: female PM Bollywood icon [ PAGE 8]

reflections

By Sandemo Ngullie

Any plan to stop criminalization of politics if elected?

Madam, ask him he is the candidate.

Fasting and Prayer for General Election 2014 KOHIMA, APRIL 2 (MExN): The Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI) has called upon Catholics in the country for a National Day of Fasting and Prayer on April 4, in order to pray for free, fair and peaceful elections to the upcoming LS polls. A press note from the Chancellor of the Diocese of Kohima stated that this has been initiated so that “the Government of the Lord’s choice may be installed at the centre, and the elected members may conscientiously carry out their service, keeping in mind especially the poor and the marginalised.” Most Rev. Dr. James Thoppil, has exhorted all Catholic of the Diocese of Kohima to pray for smooth conduct of the election in Nagaland, as well as in the country.

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Thursday, April 3, 2014 12 pages Rs. 4 –Albert Camus

‘Learning science without memorizing’ [ PAGE 2]

‘Jet mystery may never be solved’

‘West Indies aiming for World T20 history’ [ PAGE 10]

[ PAGE 9]

[ PAGE 11]

indian Democracy and its challenges

NEW DELHI, APRIL 2 (AP): In a country where men have long told their wives whom to vote for, Sheila Kumar says she has no intention of letting her husband dictate her vote in next month’s national election.

“Never again,” Kumar said as she waited to collect a bucket of drinking water from the communal tap in a south Delhi slum.

She sounds every bit the modern Indian woman, a reflection of a country with many of the outward signs of modernity: the glitzy shopping malls, the techsavvy billionaires and the burgeoning focus on women’s rights.

But it’s not so simple. Because even if she won’t allow her husband to choose her candidate, there is someone else who gets that power. “The caste elders will decide who we should vote for,” said Kumar, 43, a member of the small, midlevel Kurmi caste. “We will vote for someone from our own caste. Why should we support anyone else?”

India’s often baffling contradictions are on full display, with age-old traditions of caste loyalty, patriarchy and nepotism often clashing with the values of a modern world. But even

india’s election by the numbers

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ith more than 800 million eligible voters and close to a million polling stations across the country, everything about India’s general elections promises to be huge. For six weeks beginning Monday, Indians will head to the polls in nine phases for parliamentary elections in the world’s biggest democracy.

Supporters listen to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), or common man party, chief Arvind Kejriwal during an election campaign rally in New Delhi on April 2. (AP Photo)

though democracy is far from perfect here, it still lurches forward. Elections in India are generally considered free and fair, and even the powerful often fall to defeat at the hands of voters.

The politically independent Election Commission, empowered by the constitution, has the last word on political wrangles. “Politicians know that they are accountable to their electorate. If people have voted them into office, they can

just as easily toss them out in the next election,” said Ajoy Bose, a political commentator in New Delhi.

Still, the challenges are rife. Voting patterns are heavily influenced by caste, the complex social ladder that mobilizes entire communities. The former “untouchables,” or Dalits, are a powerful vote bank and political parties make a ll manner of promises to woo them.

Women’s votes are often dictated by the men in the household, although

that appears to be changing somewhat with growing literacy. But family and community elders still hold enormous sway. Corruption, a longtime scourge in India, is impossible to ignore. And many Indians say the lack of election primaries prevents voters from ushering out the old guard.

Lack of development in much of India also poses challenges. Armed guerrillas always threaten to disrupt national elections;

Here’s a look at some of the mind-boggling numbers: • 1.2 billion: India’s population.

• 814.5 million: Eligible voters.

• 543: The number of constituencies where elections are being held.

• 11 million: Election officials, paramilitary officers and police who will preside over the voting process.

• 1.4 million: Electronic voting machines set up for the election.

• $600 million: The amount the government will spend to conduct the election.

• $72,800 to $113,250: The amount each political candidate is allowed to spend on his or her election campaign.

• 935,000: The number of polling stations across the country.

• 28,000: The number of transgender voters who registered. For the first time, India offered a third gender choice — “other” — on voter registration forms.

The Associated Press

this year is no different. The rebels are active in 20 of India’s 28 states. The rebels demand a greater share of wealth from the area’s natural resources and more jobs for farmers and the poor. Security, already tight in rebel areas, will be reinforced with even more troops.

Similar boycotts are also expected in the violence-wracked northern state of Kashmir, where separatist groups have called on people to shun the elections. In the last

parliamentary election in 2009, 40 percent of Kashmir’s eligible voters turned out despite rebels’ calls for boycotts and strikes.

Separately, in India’s remote but restive northeastern states, a host of separatist groups warring against the Indian state for decades pose yet another obstacle.

The Election Commission has counted 815 eligible voters. The increase in the number of eligible voters since 2009 elections is more than 100 million, or

close to the population of the Philippines.

In all, around 3 million paramilitary troops and police will be deployed to maintain law and order during the polls, officials said. “The unique thing about Indian elections is that huge numbers of people are voting,” said Bose.

“And it’s the poorest who will make it a point to go out and vote. For this one time, people feel a sense of power. They feel they are relevant.”

Autistic children have lenten Agreement gains more support a right to be heard: Gov Naga leaders urged to put Agreement into practice

CCSU appeals for complete relocation of DIET Tuensang TUENSANG, APRIL 2 (MExN): The Confederation of Chang Students Union (CCSU) has written to the Director of SCERT, expressing concerns over the relocation of the District Institute of Education and Training (DIET), Tuensang. The CCSU stated that DIET Tuensang, which was upgraded in 1998, is located in a very congested area, due to which the concerned department had tabled a proposal for relocation of the entire institute. This, it said, was approved by the union ministry. Subsequently, the Tuensang district administration forwarded a proposal for construction of only a boy’s hostel and staff quarters below the ITI Office junction at Ngangpong village, Tuensang.

The CCSU stated that this is contrary to the approved project for relocation of the entire institute. According to the CCSU, the institute consists of one main building to accommodate the office, four classrooms and one conference hall; a 61 bedded hostel for both boys and girls; one Principal’s quarter, one building with four dwelling unit for academic personnel and one building with four dwelling units for grade 4 staff. The CCSU has urged the concerned authority to nullify the present proposal to construct only the boy’s hostel and staff quarters. It appealed for the authority to identify a land where the entire campus can be accommodated and said that the confederation would extend any help to this end.

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To know oneself, one should assert oneself

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Nagaland Governor Dr. Ashwani Kumar addressing the gathering on World Autism Awareness Day in Kohima today. (Morung Photo)

Nagaland observes World Autism Awareness Day Our Correspondent Kohima | April 2

Governor of Nagaland, Dr. Ashwani Kumar, today said that society and government are taking measures to ensure that the “differently-abled” are not left alone to face discrimination, isolation and abuse.

Speaking at the World Autism Awareness Day cum inauguration of a multi-purpose hall of Jo Foundation Inclusive Play School here, Dr. Kumar said the annual observance of World Autism Day enables us to join “autistic people and their beloved ones” to share our concern for their welfare.

“We have realized the need to educate ourselves and treat such people with

love and understanding,” he said.

Stating that so far medical science has failed to find the exact cause and cure for this complex disorder, he said, “We need to put in more money, time and effort to find a medical solution to this problem.”

He also stated it is our duty to guarantee physical, economic and social security to all such people.

“The government is with you, the whole society is with you and all of us are with you,” he said.

Since the “differently-abled” are guaranteed equal social, economic and political rights as per our Constitution, he said, it is our duty to ensure that they avail of all services granted to them.

He also stressed on the need to take steps to enforce their right to inherit property and safeguard their future.

“It is unfortunate and sad to notice that till date the country is yet to formu-

late a concrete policy to address this group of people having autistic symptoms.

It is indeed sad that there is still no strong supporting system in the country to help this group of children,” said Vipralhou Kesiezie, director SCERT Nagaland Kohima.

Challenging the gathering to extend support to autistic children, he said, “Let us show that we care for them and love them. Autistic children have a right to be heard and to be loved.”

‘Enable’ Kohima chairperson, Neikule Doulo, said that Enable was formed in 2007. Its programmes that focus on awareness at schools, Sunday schools and capacity building for parents and stakeholders, to take up the cause of disability, has yielded dividends and expressed pride at being associated with Daniel and Dr. Asunu since the inception of Jo Foundation.

She was appreciative that the duo have come up with a place like Jo Foundation where not just inclusion but remediation services are being provided, adding that it has physiotherapy and special education besides the regular curriculum.

“We still need services of speech therapists, more occupational therapists, diagnostic and testing services as well,” Doulo said.

Earlier, State commissioner for disabilities Dr. Atha Vizol and (Rtd) director of economics & statistics Dr. N. Thong also spoke on the occasion.

The function was chaired by Jo Foundation chairman, Daniel Thong Seb, while Life Ministries director, Colo Mero, proposed the vote of thanks.

DIMAPUR, APRIL 2 (MExN): The Naga Council, while lauding the signing of the Lenten Agreement, has urged upon the FNR and various Naga Political Groups to put into practice the agreement, for the formation of one government. This was resolved at a consultative meeting of the Naga Council members, its constituent units (Tribal Hoho) Presidents and Dimapur Colony Council Chairmen Federation on April 2.

A press note from the Naga Council also urged the Nagaland state government to facilitate entrepreneurs under the umbrella of the Business Association of Nagaland by allotting

them rooms in the shopping complex at Forest Colony, Dimapur. The meeting further deliberated for commissioning of a New Naga Cemetery at Zani Village, as the old cemetery has been exhausted. To this end, the Naga Council has appealed for public support and co operation.

Leaders told to uphold Naga Unity The Nagaland Contractors’ and Suppliers’ Union (NCSU) has appealed for all Naga Political Groups to “join hands together with the FNR to uphold Naga unity under one umbrella for our better tomorrow.” A press note from the NCSU lauded the

signing of the Lenten Agreement between the NSCN (IM), GPRN/NSCN and the NNC/FGN and expressed gratitude to the Forum for Naga Reconciliation, under the leadership of Rev Dr Wati Aier. “The different factions have been fighting amongst themselves for many years, which has led to the untimely loss of many philanthropic leaders and innocent people,” the NCSU lamented. It further acknowledged the “bold decision and fearless determination” of the FNR towards reconciliation and termed the signing of the Lenten Agreement as a historic achievement for the reconciliation process.

former Manipur minister released Ruivah was abducted by armed cadres on Tuesday Newmai News Network Imphal | April 2

Abducted former Manipur minister Khasim Ruivah was released around 8:15pm today. He is said to have been kidnapped by suspected hill based armed cadres Tuesday.

Reports said Khasim Ruivah was released by his abductors around 8:15pm, Wednesday, in Ukhrul district but it could not be ascertained why he was kidnapped, or released. Minutes after his release, Ruivah’s family members took custody of the former minister. Media persons could not reach Ruivah.

Earlier in the day, the BJP’s Ukhrul unit accused the Wung Tangkhul Region (WTR) of the Government of People’s Republic of Nagalim for the act. A

The BJP Ukhrul Unit staged a sit-in protest Wednesday morning against the kidnapping of former Manipur minister, Khasim Ruivah. By evening, Ruivah was released. (NNN Photo)

sit-in protest against the kidnapping of the former minister was held today in front of BJP’s Ukhrul office.

The protestors demanded the immediate release of Ruivah.

According to sources, Khasim Ruivah was asked to come to a place in Ukhrul by certain persons.

When the former minister obliged, the suspected armed cadres whisked him away to an “unknown destination” around 10:30am on Tuesday.

Khasim Ruivah is said to have joined the BJP sometime back and was re-

portedly campaigning fervently for the BJP candidate (Prof. Gangmumei Kamei) standing for the Outer Manipur seat.

It may be mentioned that Khasim Ruivah was education minister of Manipur during the Nipamacha-led government. He was elected from a Federal Party of Manipur ticket from Chingai assembly seat. Again, in 2007 assembly election, Ruivah was elected as an Independent candidate backed by the United Naga Council from Chingai assembly constituency of Ukhrul district.

TNL express appreciation Meanwhile, the Tangkhul Naga Long (TNL) expressed its sincere appreciation for the release of Khasim Ruivah. Prior to his release, the TNL had organized a candle light vigil in Ukhrul town this evening appealing for the release of the abducted former minister. “We had appealed to the abductors in this evening’s public candle rally in the town for the release of the former minister to promote the peace conducting of the Lok Sabha polls,” stated TNL president Artax Shimray.

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Dimapur

3 April 2014

‘Learning science without memorizing’ DSSU organises Science Teachers’ Training cum Students’ Workshop DIMAPUR, APRIL 2 (MExN): In a first of its kind initiative by the Dimapur Sumi Students’ Union (DSSU), a three-day Science Teachers’ Training cum Students’ Workshop is underway at Holy Cross Higher Secondary School Dimapur.

Science, being generally described as a ‘memory subject,’ the initiative is themed as, ‘learning science without memorizing.’

Three resource persons from Maharashtra namely; Vinayak Shamrao Dixit, Sharad Narayan Godse and Achyut Vishnu Sapre are conducting the seminar and workshop which started on Tuesday.

The seminar focuses on training the teachers, equipping them with student friendly teaching process covering different topics under science. The students’ workshop is being conducted based on theory, practical and experiments in chemistry, physics, electronics etc.

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One of the resource persons speaking at the seminar.

(Morung Photo)

Altogether, 32 Science teachers and hundreds of students are taking part in the seminar and workshop which will conclude on

in vegetable crop, where she showed the different organic products and their uses in different crops.

Hannah K. Asangla, SMS (Agronomy) presented lecture on importance of field crops and cropping system suitable under Phek district.

On the second day, around 56 farmers from different colonies participated in the programme.

T Esther Longkumer, SMS (Soil Science) from KVK Phek explained on organic farming, steps involved in organic farming and inputs of organic farming like biofertilizer, vermicomposting, Azolla etc. Dr. Debojy-

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NagaLaNd Lok Sabha PoLL 2014 ADC Kohima flags off SVEEP audiovisual mobile van ADC Kohima, Asangla Imti flagged off the SVEEP Audio Visual Mobile Publicity Van for Kohima district this morning from the DC‘s Office Kohima. The Mobile Publicity Van will be visiting Tseminyu today where a programme on SVEEP awareness will be held.

Speaking on the occasion, ADC Kohima, Asangla Imti said that the SVEEP Campaign was first launched in the district on September 11, 2011, which is aimed at educating the voters on ethical, informed and inducement- free voting. She stated that the campaign is also about cleaning the electoral roll as despite the provisions of law, there are rampant violations in matters of registration of names in the electoral rolls in the forms of multiple entries and inflating ages. She said that voter’s education holds the key to remove all malaise related to votings and appealed to all concerned to abide by the guidelines of the Election Commission of India to maintain public tranquillity in the interest of holding a free and fair poll as per schedule.

The ADC hoped that the SVEEP Audio Visual Mobile Publicity Van will sensitize the public about ethical voting and that the exercise would not go in vain. The SVEEP Mobile exercise is organised by the Kohima District Core Committee for SVEEP campaign in collaboration with the Department of Information and Public Relations. The Mobile Publicity Van will be visiting Tseminyu, Chiephobozou, Jakhama and Sechu Zubza.

Thursday. The programme is being organized by DSSU in collaboration with Indigenous Cultural Society and 2nd randomization of Jan Jati Vikas Samiti.

Mkg polling personnel held With only 6 days left, campaigning for the lone Nagaland Lok Sabha seat is going on in an atmosphere of peace in Mokokchung district. Barring posters and pamphlets campaign, political rallies and meetings with star campaigner is yet to oti Borkotoky SMS (Animal pick up its momentum. Election reScience) delivered a lecture lated officials headed by DC & ARO on backyard poultry pro- is working round the clock to held duction with vanaraja and polling in the district in a fair and gramapriya. He explained free manner. Meanwhile, General the performance traits of Observer for Mokokchung, Tuenthe birds, brooding, feed- sang, Mon, Longling and Kipheri ing, housing and protec- districts A.A.Latief-U Haman Deva, tion against common poul- IAS had inspected polling stations under 23 Impur and 28 Koridang try disease.

After the lecture ses- Assembly Constituencies along sion, there was a farmer- with sector magistrates on 1st and scientist interaction where 2nd April respectively.

The 2nd Randomization of the farmers actively participated in the discussion polling personnel was also held tohour. The interaction was a day in presence of General Observtwo way process between er and the 3rd and final randomthe resource persons and ization will be done on 7th April. the participants. Total 118 farmers participated in the SVEEP campaign launched two day interaction pro- in Dimapur district DC Dimapur, Hushili Sema gramme.

KVK Phek orgainses farmerscientist interaction prog PhEk, APRIL 2 (MExN): KVK Phek orgainsed farmer-scientist interaction programme for women SHGs at Porba village on March 24 and at Pfütsero on March 31.

On the first day of the interaction, the programme started with a lecture on Biofertilizer for organic farming by T Esther Longkumer, SMS (Soil Science) where she explained regarding the importance of biofertilizer, its method of application and recommended doses for different crops. Liza B. Bharali, SMS (Plant Protection) delivered lecture on insect-pest and disease management

The Morung Express

(IAS) kick off the ‘Systematic Voters Education & Electoral Participation’ (SVEEP) campaign at the DC office premises at 9.00 a.m. on 2nd April 2014. The Dimapur District Core Committee for Systematic Voter Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) in collaboration with the Department of Information and Public Relation launched the SVEEP Campaign across Dimapur District. The SVEEP campaign has been adopted in other to facilitate and enhance ethical and informed electoral participation.

The SVEEP first campaign was at Medziphema subdivision and Chumukedima. The mobile team disseminated information to the public through theme song, banners and ethical voting messages. The SVEEP messages were to enhance turnout, ethical, informed and inducement free voting in areas of the District Headquarters and selected rural areas ahead of the polling date.

Programme on SVEEP held in Mokokchung A programme on Systematic Voters Education Electoral Participation (SVEEP) was held at Dobashi Court, Mokokchung on 2nd April 2014.

Deputy Commissioner, Murohu Chotso in his speech urged the people to vote fairly. He asked the voters to stop selling votes, proxy voting, multiple voting, impersonations etc. saying that one’s rights should not be sold. President Ao Senden, Dr.Sangyu Yaden speaking on behave of NGO’s, encouraged the voters to consciously elect their representatives. He said all right thinking citizen must value their votes saying that selling our votes means selling our future.

Meanwhile randomization of EVM’s has been done at Mokokchung yesterday 1st April 2014.

EVM manuals available for Zunheboto Deputy Commissioner and

ARO, Zunheboto L. Akato Sema has informed all concerned that the dispatching of EVM manual for the forthcoming Parliamentary Election 2014 will be done at Deputy Commissioner Office, Zunheboto.

Right to vote rally at Pfütsero A rally on “Right to Vote” was organized by the Pfutsero Government College, Pfutsero on 2nd April 2014 which was sponsored by the Additional Deputy Commissioner Office, Pfutsero. The rally started at the Pfutsero Government College premises where the Principal Pfutsero Government College, Pfutsero, Dr. Watijungshi Jamir delivered a short speech and brief the participant students about the rally where the student proceeded with the rally to the Army Camp junction, whereby the Additional Deputy Commissioner, Nchumbemo Odyuo addresses the rally along with the SDO (C), EAC and Action Committee Pfutsero.

Nchumbemo Odyuo in his short speech he brief the students and the public that the constitution of Indian has given the right to every citizens to vote who has attained the age of 18 years and therefore, every vote is precious and no one should waste ones vote, where a single vote can decided the destiny of our future country. He also point out that each individual has the right to decide whom to elect, therefore, choose wisely and cast your vote without fear, because your vote is your right, your voice and most importantly it is ones duty. He also pointed out that a candidate should not be chosen based on his religion, cast, tribe etc. and an elector should not abuse his or her vote by means of alcohol, money etc. In his speech, he also opined that election is a festival of Democracy, where we elect our representatives. In his concluding speech he appeal the young generation to come out and vote without fear for the right candidate and be the agent of change. The rally proceeded and came to an end at

the college premise with alight refreshment.

DC Mon informs In view of the ensuring Parliamentary Election 2014, the Deputy Commissioner, Mon Anagu I Thou, IAS has informed to all the Village Council Chairmen (VCC) and Gaoburas (GB) of Mon district to extend all possible support and cooperation to election related officials or government departments in their respective jurisdictions. Any information related to activities/movements of anti social elements that may disrupt/hamper the election process is to be brought to the notice of the concerned administrative officers/ nearest police stations. Dereliction of duty on this count will invite punitive action as per the law.

ADC & ERO Mon informs In view of the ensuring Lok Sabha Election 2014, the Addl. Deputy Commissioner & Electoral Registration Officer, Mon Kuko Mero has directed to all the Nodal Officer to collect Voters slip from the office and supervise their respective BLOs in distribution of voters slip under their respective designated Assembly Constituency. It further instructed that the distribution of Photo Voter’s Slip should be done by the BLO under the supervision of the Administrative Officer. BLO or any other person shall not allow bulk distribution of Photo Voter’s Slip and distribution should be completed at least five clear days before the date of poll.

DC & ARO Mon informs The Deputy Commissioner & Assistant Returning Officer, Mon has informed to all concern that the Governor of Nagland is please to declared paid holiday to all the Government Employees serving in the state of Nagaland on the day of polling on the 9th April 2014 as per the RP Act of 1951.

(DIPR News)

Training on bamboo furniture making concludes

A WORSHIP CONCERT CELEBRATING ONENESS IN CHRIST CHOIR: SUMI BAPTIST CHURCH // KUDA BAPTIST CHURCH // CHAKHESANG BAPTIST CHURCH // LOTHA BAPTIST CHURCH // DIMAPUR CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP // DABA // PATKAI CHORALE // NAGALAND CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC // NAGALAND CHAMBER CHOIR // crown centre SOLOIST SOPRANO: JUDY SENOLOS HONOR TENOR: RUBIN LUKITO BASS: VISAHU PESEYIE ORGANIST: MRS. MARGARET SHISHAK PIANIST: MR. ZINGRIN SHISHAK STRING ENSEMBLE: MS. JUDY TAY // MS. LYDIA WONG // HOPE CENTRE FOR EXCELLENCE // JOEY WOCH STUDIO // PATKAI CHRISTIAN COLLEGE // CONDUCTOR: PASTOR RAZO VASA

SDO (Civil) Kukhuboto, Zakabo Rotoka along with dobashis and officials distributed relief material (cash & kind) to fire victim’s family at Vihoku village on April 1. District Administration, Red Cross and Lions Club Dimapur contributed the relief materials. 21 housed, two rice mill and shops were gutted at Vihoku village under Kukhuboto sub-division on March 31. According to villagers, property worth 98 lakhs have been destroyed in the fire. (DIPR Photo)

ChakheSanG BaPtiSt ChurCh CounCil

Cms Mission

pray

Week

1- 6 april 2014

oUR HARVEsT FiELDs : (Present)

Assam, Arunachal, Tripura, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Andaman & Nicobar Island, Bhutan, Myanmar, Thailand, Nepal, Laos, Cambodia, Japan, Singapore and Africa

oUR HARVEsT FoRCEs : (Present)

• CBCC Cross Cultural Missionaries=81 • Sponsored Evangelists/Native Workers=152

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ADC Kohima Asangla Imti flagging off the SVEEP audiovisual mobile publicity van on April 2 from DC’s office Kohima. (DIPR Photo)

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5TH APRIL • 5:30 PM • DABA (DIMAPUR AO BAPTIST AROGO) ENTRY FREE • KINDLY BE SEATED BY 5 PM IN ASSOCIATION WITH

our Mission & Vision statement

Committed to reaching the unreached through evangelism and church planting, raising native leaderships, partnership in mission, co-ordination and worldwide-evangelisation.

Mission Highlights 2014

CMS Mission Week, 1-6 April, 2014 Recruiting Missionaries/Evangelists, Year-long Chain of Prayer Focusing : North India & Southeast Asia (Myanmar) Enlisting supporters/volunteers by Prayer, GivinG, GoinG & SendinG. Chakhesang Mission Society, CBCC, T. Chikri, Pfütsero - 797107, Nagaland Telephone: 03865-262310 email: kmero_cms@yahoo.com

DIMAPUR, APRIL 2 (MExN): An intensive training on bamboo furniture making was conducted from March 18 to April 2 at the Nagaland Bamboo Resource Centre, Dimapur. The valedictory function for this training was held here today, which was attended by all the fourteen trainees and the resource persons Toshi and Imli.

The function was presided over by Kevin Solo, Member, NBDA and Alemba Longkumer, Member, NBDA was the guest of honour.

Distribution of certificates and impartation of technical knowledge on bamboo enterprise were the highlights of the function. This training was organised by Nagaland Bamboo Development Agency as a follow-up of the Government Job Mela which was held last year at the Agri Expo site, Dimapur.

Dr. Tolto Metha, Team Member, NBDA in a press release stated, it is to note that, the Nagaland Bamboo Development Agency, besides conducting trainings at regular intervals, also thrives to further promote bamboo entrepreneurs/artisans by establishing market linkages for them and giving technical assistance on value addition for their finished products.

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The Morung Express

Thursday

3 April 2014

Meghalaya, Assam to keep watch on liquor flow, rebels ShILLoNg, AprIL 2 (TNN): At a meeting between election, home department and police officers belonging to Meghalaya and Assam on Tuesday, both states agreed to coordinate with each other to check the movement of militants and flow of liquor along the interstate boundary. They also decided to provide logistical support to each other to ensure free and fair Lok Sabha polls.

The delegation from Assam, headed by chief electoral officer (CEO) R C Jain, requested Meghalaya to declare dry days in areas along the interstate boundary during the three-phase polls in the state.

"Besides April 7, April 12 and 24 are also polling dates. People living in boundary areas will vote on these two days, and hence, we requested Meghalaya to declare these days as dry days," Jain said, adding that as per the Election Commission's guidelines,

areas have to be declared dry 48 hours before they go to polls.

Meghalaya chief election officer (CEO) Prashant Naik assured that areas bordering Assam will be declared dry from the evening of April 5. He said Assam also required Meghalaya's assistance with regards to the management of dry days, movement of polling parties and maintenance of law and order.

Besides providing logistical support, especially along the boundary, the two states also agreed to increase security to prevent the movement of militants.

Naik, while refusing to divulge details, said, "All coordinating and action points have been discussed with regards to law and order." He said the activities of militant groups along the interstate border needed to be checked to ensure peaceful election.

Expressing concern over the movement of mili-

Northeast Briefs Black flag hoisted in the office of the Mizoram Election dept AIZAWL, AprIL 2 (pTI): Major civil societies and student bodies hoisted a black flag in the office of the Mizoram Election department today in protest against the Election Commission of India's decision allowing the Bru voters to exercise franchise inside the relief camps in Tripura. The Bru voters were casting votes through postal ballots since yesterday for the election to Mizoram's lone Lok Sabha seat to be held on April 9. The civil societies said that the black flag hoisted at the office of the state election department would remain till Thursday evening when the polling in the relief camps would conclude. Meanwhile, polling in the six relief camps in North Tripura district continued this morning and the polling was conducted by the Tripura state election department officials under the supervision of seven nodal officials from Mizoram, state joint chief electoral officer H. Lalengmawia said. Civil societies here continued to protest the polling in the relief camps saying that they would obstruct counting of votes polled in the relief camps through postal ballots. They wanted that all the Brus lodged in the relief camps should return to Mizoram and exercise franchise at the place where they were enrolled as voters.

tants, Jain said, "We have requested the Meghalaya government to look into the issue. On our part, we will take care of coordination during the polls."

Meghalaya and Assam share an interstate boundary of about 800 km. Several polling booths on either side of the border have been classed as sensitive. Meghalaya goes to polls on April 9, while elections in Assam will be held in three phases on April 7, 12 and 24.

"We requested Assam to provide a certain number of vehicles as we are running short, especially in the Garo hills sector," Naik further said. "We decided to extend full cooperation to each other on all issues discussed during the meeting," he iterated.

Polling material for 101 stations in Meghalaya will have to pass through Assam. "Security and other logistics will be required and Assam will pitch in," said Jain.

Tangkhul Baptist Churches Association (TBCA) held its triennial gathering at Sinakeithei Village, Ukhrul from March 27-31, with the theme “Unity in the Spirit”. The 4-day celebration saw more than 5000 registered, and about 5000 daily worshippers. Seen here are speakers for the event Dr Pangernungba Kechu (Left), Dr Andrew Byung-Yoon Kim (2nd Left), Rev Dr A K Lama (2nd Right), Music artist Aching Shaiza (3rd Left), and TBCA Executive Secretary Rev Yarngam Muivah (Right). (Photo: Kahorpam Horam)

Neiphiu Rio to campaign for AGP in Assam gUWAhATI, AprIL 2 (TNN): Nagaland chief minister and the chief convener of the North East Regional Political Front (NERPF), Neiphiu Rio, will visit Assam to campaign for Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) as the first phase of the Lok Sabha election in the state

scheduled on April 7 is drawing closer. Rio, who is also contesting for the lone Nagaland parliamentary seat, will be campaigning for AGP in Jorhat and Kaliabor constituencies from Wednesday. "Rio's arrival will definitely boost the party morale ahead of the

ism squad of the Kolkata police, a police official said.

Swer's associate Nanda Kishore Thakur has been detained by the Kolkata police for helping in providing shelter to the escaped rebel.

"We have been informed that Swer was arrested by the Kolkata police Tuesday evening from the Kalikapur area in West Bengal," Mariahom Kharkrang, the district police chief of

East Khasi Hills, told IANS. He said a Meghalaya police team has left for Kolkata to take custody of Swer.

Swer, who escaped from the North East Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences in Meghalaya July 17, is accused of involvement in several criminal cases, including masterminding abductions for ransom in the coal-belt areas of the

3 killed, 2 injured in firing by NDFB(S) KoKrAjhAr, AprIL 2 (pTI): Three persons were killed and two others injured in an attack by NDFB (Songbijit) militants in Kokrajhar district of Assam today. The anti-talk insurgent faction opened fire on a truck carrying construction materials for a bridge in Mornoi Tea Estate area along the Assam-Bengal border around 12.45 pm, police said. While the truck driver and two labourers were gunned down on the spot, two other workers were seriously injured, the police said.

Villagers rescue 15-feet python rANgIyA, AprIL 2 (pTI): A 15 feet long python was rescued from a trafficker by villagers this morning. According to forest officials, a person was carrying the 15 feet long and 20 kg weighed python when villagers at Gurkuchi stopped him. The trafficker was carrying the python to outside Assam. The public then detained the person and rescued the python. Latter it was handed over to the forest officer of North Kamrup division and police arrested the trafficker.

In this Friday, March 28, 2014 photo, Indian laborers carry a metal trunk box containing Electronic Voting Machines as a security officer stands guard inside a strong room in Dibrugarh, Assam. India will hold national elections from April 7 to May 12, kicking off a vote that many observers see as the most important election in more than 30 years in the world's largest democracy. Election authorities say some 1.4 million EVMs will be used to conduct the polls for more than 935,000 polling stations in 543 parliamentary constituencies. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)

polling stations consisting of 2,900 electorates," Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Chandra Bhusan Kumar told reporters at a press conference here this evening.

Vijaynagar, one of the remotest circles under Miao sub-division is located at a distance of 157 kilometres from the sub divisional headquarters.

"The circle which has no surface communication, is approachable only by foot which takes five to six days," Kumar disclosed

state's East Jaintia Hills district.

Meghalaya police arrested him Jan 24, 2013 from his wife's residence at Iawmusiang in Jowai town after he sneaked into India from Bangladesh.

Before joining the HNLC, Phyrnai was the chairman of a Meghalayabased Retrieval Indigenous United Front outfit. He was arrested along with the oth-

gUWAhATI, AprIL 2 (IANS): A leading nonprofit organisation working in the field of public health has requested poll officials in Assam to prohibit smoking in all polling booths in the state during the threephased polls starting April 7.

The chief electoral officers (CEO) of Jammu and Kashmir and Bihar have already issued directives to ensure that all polling centres in their states are declared smoke-free. "We have met the CEO Assam over the issue and he has assured to look into the matter and try and do something positive in this direction. The CEO said a decision could be expected after his discussion with the Election Commission," said a spokesman of the Voluntary Health Association of Assam (VHAA).

60% of Arunachal Assembly candidates are crorepatis ITANAgAr, AprIL 2 (pTI): About sixty per cent of the candidates in poll fray in Arunachal Pradesh for April 9 Assembly polls are crorepatis. As many as 91 of 152 candidates are crorepatis while average assets declared per candidate is Rs 6.30 crore compared to Rs 3.51 crore in the 2009 elections.

There were 51 from Congress, 24 from BJP, five from NCP and four PPA nominees with assets over more than one crore.

There were also 14 Independent candidates with an average of Rs 8.05 crore in assets, according to a study by the Arunachal Pradesh Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms.

The top five crorepatis are from Congress-Takam Pario from Palin with declared assets of Rs 187.56 crore followed by Pema Khandu from Mukto with Rs 129.57 crore, Gojen Gadi from Basar with Rs 89.71 crore and Nabam

Rebia from Doimukh with Rs 26.49 crore. PPA's Nikh Kamin from Bordumsa has property worth Rs 13.63 crore. Independent candidate Tsering Tashi from Tawang had Rs 96.43 crore in assets. In statistical terms 60 per cent of total contestants had both movable and immovable assets in crores of rupees as against 41 per cent in the 2009 polls.

The poorest candidate was Bida Taku of PPA from Lekang whose movable

90 air sorties in Arunachal Pradesh for holding election ITANAgAr, AprIL 2 (pTI): The Election Commission would press 90 air sorties in Arunachal Pradesh for transporting men and materials to various remote and inaccessible polling stations in the state for the April 9 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.

"The process of air sorties began today with the departure of four teams of polling officials including security personnel to remote Vijaynagar circle in Changlang district to manage four

election," AGP's general secretary Ramendra Narayan Kalita told reporters on Tuesday.

Last year, 10 regional political parties had formed the NERPF to press the Centre for solving the 'common and vital issues' of the region. The front

‘Ban smoking in polling centres in Assam’

Nine all-women polling stations in Tripura AgArTALA, AprIL 2 (IANS): The Election Commission of India (ECI) will set up nine all- women polling stations in Tripura, an official said here Wednesday.

"Considering the performance of women polling personnel in previous elections, nine polling stations would be set up with only women polling personnel," Tripura Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Ashutosh Jindal told IANS. He said: "Around 19,000 polling personnel, including 60 women, would be appointed to man the 3,095 polling stations across Tripura. Several hundred sector officers and micro observers, all men, would be employed to deal with the polling." The polling personnel now being trained across Tripura by the senior officials and ECI appointed central observers. The poll panel has appointed seven central observers. Also, a massive campaign asking people to cast their votes has been launched. Jindal said: "Considering hot weather and early sunrise and sunset, the ECI has extended the hour of polling by one hour in the northeastern region except Manipur and Nagaland.

Now the voters can cast their votes in between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. instead of 7 a.m. and 4 p.m."

and added that the teams comprising 39 person including security personnel equipped with polling materials and all logistics have been dispatched in advance keeping in view the weather condition.

He said the polling officials including the security personnel have casted their postal ballots yesterday. He said, besides Pawan Hans choppers, the Indian Air Force would provide air sorties to the Commission.

"The IAF will provide one

3

Raids on booze shops in Manipur

comprises all the major regional parties — AGP, Nagaland People's Front (NPF), Mizo National Front (MNF), Sikkim Democratic Front, Manipur State Congress Party (MSCP) and several other parties from Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura.

Escaped Meghalaya militant re-arrested ShILLoNg, AprIL 2 (IANS): A top leader of the outlawed Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) who escaped nine months ago from a Meghalaya hospital has been rearrested in Kolkata, police said here Wednesday.

Phyrnai Swer alias Pastor, a former Meghalaya police constable-turnedlieutenant of the HNLC, was captured by the anti-terror-

Dimapur

air ambulance on the polling day to manage medical emergencies.

Retrieval for any emergency will not be a problem for us as we have arranged adequate medical facilities and other logistics in all the remote and inaccessible polling booths," he disclosed. "We have taken all precautionary measures for the polling teams including medical, rations, wireless and other logistics.

The teams from 664 remote and inaccessible polling

booths will return back on April 11 next," he said.

Disclosing that all preparation for a free and fair elections are nearing completion, Kumar informed that 1,358 digital cameras have been installed to check unfair means during polling while, in 124 polling stations webcasting facility would be available. Altogether 7,53,170 electorates including 3,77,272 female would exercise their franchise in 2,158 polling stations in the state.

assets were worth just Rs 3,540 followed by Debia Tara of BJP from Yachuli with Rs 5,000, while Holai Wangsa of BJP from Pongchau-Wakka had total assets worth Rs 50,000.

The study also showed that 11 of the 152 candidates had criminal cases pending against them against four candidates in the 2009 election. Of the 11 candidates, nine had serious criminal cases, including crime against women, dacoity, and theft.

er founding members.

The Khasi outfit is fighting for a sovereign Hynniewtrep homeland in the eastern part of Meghalaya.

The HNLC stages hit-andrun operations from hideouts in Bangladesh.

Meghalaya shares a 443-km border with Bangladesh, part of which is porous, hilly and unfenced and thus prone to infiltration.

IMphAL, AprIL 2 (TNN): In compliance with the Election Commission's guidelines, sleuths of the state excise department have intensified raids on liquor outlets across Manipur.

On Tuesday, the officials seized Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) and country liquor from some food joints near Pologround in Imphal. Police, as well as anti-drug NGOs, carry out similar drives in many places, including Bishnupur district. Though Manipur is a dry state, the sale and consumption of liquor is on in full force, with a large number of anti-drug bodies and excise sleuths carrying out sudden raids on illicit liquor outlets and hotels.

So far, the state excise department has confiscated huge amounts of imported liquor and country brew worth over Rs 7 lakh since the model code of conduct came into force in the state on March 5.

Altogether, 182 persons have been pulled up during the drive and Rs 2, 47,600 collected as fine, a senior excise official said.

He added that the seized liquor has been destroyed at the excise department's office at Lamphelpat here.

Stating that most of the seized IMFL was bought from the canteens of security forces, including different battalions of Manipur Rifles stationed in Imphal, he said the department would deploy flying squads to check illegal deals which also breach the Prohibition act. Sources said foreign liquor of different brands is smuggled from Myanmar through Manipur's border town of Moreh, while IMFL is brought along the Imphal-Dimapur and Imphal-Silchar routes by goods carriers.

FELICITATION

It is a great joy and pride that Mr.Nockpai Konyak, s/o Mr. & Mrs.Fangkei Konyak of Chenwetnyu Village under Mon District has mark respectable achievement by securing EAC through the NPSC 2014 Examination. He is the first citizen of the village to bring this worthy recognition thus setting the trend of competition and achievement .May I congratulate this achievement.

Sd/(C.L.JOHN) Parliamentary Secretary, RD & REPA, Nagaland, Kohima

OFFICE OF THE

KACHGARIGAON (PHEVIMA) VILLAGE COUNCIL Dimapur-797112: Nagaland

PUBLIC NOTICE

It has come to the notice of the undersigned that some unscrupulous people are making fake Village Provisional Pattas and are borrowing money/selling land to third parties without knowledge of the real land owners or the village council members. Therefore, it is hereby informed to the general public that buying of land or loaning of money against the provisional village pattas without the knowledge of the village council will be doing so at their own risk.

NEIBOULIE MHASI Secretary Kacharigaon Village Council

MATHOVI YHOSHU Chairman Kacharigaon Village Council

UNITED COLLEGE OF THEOLOGY AND MISSIONS (UCTM) Regd.Rs.No.1880, Govt.Per.No.7703, Recognized by Govt.of Nagaland Higher Education accredited by Asia Theological Association (ATA), affiliated to Indian Institute of Missiology (IIM) DEGREE QUALIFICATION DURATION M.Div B.Th./B.A 2 Yrs/3 Yrs B.Th. 10+2 Passed 3 Yrs Diploma in Mission Studies Class X Passed 2 Yrs Certificate in Mission Studies Class X 1 Yr Short Term Missionary Course Mission interested candidate Five months New session begins form 4th July 2014.

Contact for more information Principal=9436830739 Academic Dean=9856145668

C M Y K

4

public discoursE

Thursday

Dimapur

3 April 2014

Honourable Neiphiu Rio as the Naga Ambassador to New Delhi: A Thought

T

he present political scenario of India is at a low ebb with recurring corruption, communalism, racism, and the fast widening gap between the rich and poor. Many Indian politicians have criminal record. Many of them are agents of corporate and capitalists. Sexual harassment and common people unrest created by global economic forces are on the rise. The welfare of common people is neglected. Hence the signs of the times tell us that rightful people must join politics and bring transformation. One of the best ways to bring positive change in society is to start from within.

In other words, if we want to transform a particular society, we must become a member or part of that society. Attempting to bring change by condemning the bad things of the other (person, party or society) from outside will be counterproductive.

New Delhi is boiling with many problems.

Comparing to New Delhi, Nagaland is a much safer and peaceful place. However, Mr. Neiphiu Rio is planning to leave behind this peaceful place and go to a place of wolves and snakes and work among them probably with a burning heart to transform them. It is unimaginable!!

Not only the place where

he is going to stay unsafe but also the credibility of the particular political party he choose to align with had been questioned by many people. There is no doubt, like many political parties in India, this overenthusiastic rightist party has had its failures in the past and its stains still remain unerased. Hence the choice of Mr. Neiphiu Rio to align with that particular national political party in the coming Lok Sabha Election and bring change is highly appreciated. With high calibre in governance and general understanding of the present situation, I believe, he will bring transformation from within the party. He can make use of his political stature and governing skill to bring positive change in mainstream politics.

He is a man with great concern for the wellbeing of the oppressed groups of people as demonstrated in his own state. He thinks and acts for all round development of the people of grass root level. His choice of joining the rightist political party that propagates and pursues dominant development paradigm thus makes us to think that he had taken a hard and difficult step to transform the party from within. With his high political stature he has the power to influence policy makers in New Delhi

to frame policies with humane face that would empowers the common people as much as he did to his own people through communitarian programme.

He can lend his liberal and accommodative nature to transform religious fundamentalist elements inherently existing in his to-beparty. The spirit of sharing among the Naga community that prevented death because of starvation has to be imbibed in the minds of mainland Indians where thousands of its farmers have committed suicide.

The nature friendly traditional culture of the Naga people and its benefits has to be made known with full strength. Common ownership of land and its resources must be protected from predators. The practice of growing of diversity of food crops by Naga farmers without using chemical fertilisers and pesticides and that provides basic food security to our society for centuries should be highlighted to central government. We can also expect him to block any mega-development projects to be taken up in Nagaland so that no further ecological imbalance takes place. Tourism industries and mega-dams that destroy nature and habitats of flora, fauna and human beings are not viable in our state. Small is beautiful:

Z.K. Pahrü Pou Pfutsero

Dignity of Labour

7 Reasons why YOUNG PEOPLE should vote

1. You will have to vote for the person of your choice as that person will represent you for the next 5 (five) years. Anyone taking your place to vote may do it against your interest.

2. Your vote is equal to everyone, yes! even equal to the President or Prime Minister of our country.

3. Election Day is the ONE day when everyone in our country is equal. So, why loss the opportunity?

4. Young people have the most to gain or lose in any election because you have to live with the consequences longer than anyone else.

5. Every political issue and policy affects you whether you know it

small scale industry, small and farmer friendly technology, small dams, small buildings, etc. are suitable for all people of all ages because human beings are small. Green Revolution or extensive mono cultivation of cash crops will lead to famine in the long run.

Speed thrills but kills.

For all these years we have been looking to and depending on New Delhi for everything and neglecting many of our local resources. It is time for the Nagas to give what they have to the people of mainland India. Mr. Neiphiu Rio, we expect you to replace barbaric Indian communalism with communitarian spirit of the Nagas; religious fanaticism with accommodative indigenous religion; hoarding spirit of the Indian capitalists with the spirit of sharing of material wealth by rich Nagas; centralised form of governance with decentralised form practiced by Nagas; money oriented want based economy with life-supporting and life producing need based economy. It is my dream and probably of every Naga that Neiphiu Rio live and act upto (or even above) the expectation of the Nagas as he enters the field of national politics.

I

t was a surprise to learn, that a group of young people have formed into a registered organization called ‘Hills Work Force’ with its office at TCP Gate, Kohima, by adopting the ‘Dignity of Labour’ as its motto. The HWF is enrolled with members, ready to take up all works involving Masonry, Welding & Fabrication, Painting, Sanitation, Carpentry, Electrification and other constructions. The HWF has formulated a memorandum of rules under a Governing Body and Executive Members with contact number as 9856962340, 9856361164.

The Department of Labour & Employment should be appreciated if all their trainees under the it is, could be organized into such ‘Trade Organisations’ or ‘Professional Unions’. The youth of today should reciprocate by realization of corporate system of survival. The natural law of ‘Commensalism’, is what the youth must inculcate and emulate.

or not.

6. The feeling of power and satisfaction you get after voting cannot be compared with any other thing.

7. And yes finally on a lighter note, at the polling station, you might even meet that cute guy or girl you have been eyeing for the past many days; Plus, he/ she will be instantly impressed by your devotion to civic duty.

Yes, young friends, its a winwin situation for you.

So go and cast your conscious vote on the 9th of April 2014 to elect your representative who will speak for you for the next 5 years.

Dr.Hovithal N.Sothu ICSC Complex, PWD Kohima

Dominic Yazokie

The Morung Express

Quo Vadis?

D

reams are the royal road to the unconscious said Sigmund Freud. Dreams can be frightful too. I believe dreams have meaning and give us lessons for life. Dreams can be warning signs of realities of life that needs attention and action. I had a dream one night that disturbed my mind and am not satisfied until I have shared with you all. I met Jesus in the dream and it was a long discourse that we were engaged into. I present this dream to the readers to think, reflect and act for the best of the society with malice towards no one.

The term quo vadis is referred in the apocryphal writings. According to the apocryphal Acts of Peter, Peter is fleeing from likely crucifixion in Rome at the hands of the government, and along the road outside the city he meets a risen Jesus. In the Latin translation, Peter asks Jesus “Quo vadis?”, to which Jesus replies, “Romam vado iterum crucifigi” (“I am going to Rome to be crucified again”).

Peter thereby gains the courage to continue his ministry and returns to the city, to eventually be martyred by being crucified upside-down.

In this writing I am using the title to refer in a different manner. It was Peter who asked Jesus, “Quo Vadis?

But today Jesus is asking us, “Quo Vadis? Meaning where are you or we going? It is a long thought reflection and has taken time to assimilate as it has a lot of sentiments attached to it.

We are facing a situation that inflicts, injures the growth and development of society not only in parts but as a whole in its entirety whether in infrastructure or in human resources.

In every society there exists some social problems but they keep changing with the passage of time. Today, the social problems ailing our society require change as development in every aspect is competitive and our young generation are to be given their dues for growth and prosperity, opportunities to excel in diverse fields that would bring honour and glory.

This seems to be a challenge before us as we embark ourselves into a new threshold of life.

The social problems presented here are not only individual problems that affect a few individuals only but these problems affect the society at large that needs constructive consideration and action for a positive and productive change.

Corruption: Corruption is spread over in the society in several forms.

We cannot deny the fact that corruption among the public servants and other leaders exist and it has made its ugly face in the society. Some of us may be victims of corruption in any form. We are silent and let corruption rule over us and make us victims to suffer.

Nepotism: Nepotism has become a Way of Life in our state. Politics,

business, mainstream activities and other occupations where talent is subordinate to lineage are dominated by family cartels, who plant their own over the rest.

Unemployment: It appears that our state has less industrial sectors and not so technically developed agriculture while the bulk of the educated population depend on the service sector. We can see that the educational institutions in Nagaland are continuously producing educated youths but employment opportunities are limited in relation to educated youth. The prevalence of high unemployment level is because many job seekers’ expectations exceed the emerging realities of the labour market and they prefer to remain unemployed for some time rather than accept a job that they feel is beneath them. This creates the inverse relationship between educated unemployment and educational attainment.

Addictions: The menace of drugs and alcohol has woven itself deep into the fabric of our society. As its effects reach towards our youth, the future generation will have to compete with drugs like cannabis, alcohol and tobacco. More youngsters are struggling with addiction than ever before. Peer pressure, adolescent immaturity and irresponsible parenting is the three-headed monster luring our children towards addiction and a life of suffering and regret. The use of drugs and alcohol is not confined to males alone, but females as well. Drug addiction and alcoholism have taken their toll on the youths, predominantly the student community, and this is turning out to be a major social predicament in the state. There are many other types of addictions like pornography, mobile, social network, gambling, and computer games and so on.

Insurgency and Political Unrest: Insurgency in Nagaland is a great concern for the growth and development of the state.

Isms: There exist in the midst of us the so called ‘isms’ in diverse forms that threaten the unity and development of our state. All negative ‘isms’ influences the young to deviate from the constructive path of life.

Spiritual Bankruptcy: We are all Christians but our lives do not show that we believe in Jesus. Many of us do not practice religion today. We have become complacent with our pride as Christians and do not practice or live according to the values of the Gospel.

Family Disintegration: The dissolution of marriage has been quite uncommon and rare in our society. In case of any crisis or threat to stability of marriage the community and kinsmen played their role to keep them united. The system of religious be-

lief provided enough sustenance to the institution of marriage and family. But today we feel sad to see many broken homes and families breaking away from the fabric of family life which is vital for the growth and development of the future generation.

Crimes against Women and Marginalised: Considerable changes have taken place in the traditional role of women and at the same time there are violence’s, crimes, and gender based discriminations on the increase as reported in the media.

Women have to take new roles in the society and bring up changes to the existing and ailing social problems of the state. The news papers report many incidents of crimes committed against women and their cry for justice. There are many who suffer silently being victimised by their own trusted people. Those who voice for the voiceless are silenced by the vested interests.

Health Care Issues: It is another major issue and concern in rural areas of our state where health care providers are not reaching up to the expectations. Infant mortality during some seasons in the rural areas is alarming and the health in general needs attention and action. Govt. hospitals need to equip with clean and hygiene environment. The cost of treatment has to be made affordable for the general public.

There are many issues and problems that we face today both as individuals and as a society. Some of us may think that these problems presented here are not social problems while others may have the opinion that these are issues that needs attention and action onl y by the Govt. or those in authority and power. The solving of social problems depends upon finding out the causes and the social conditions attached to it. Every problem is caused by multiple factors and it is unique in many aspects.

Our problems, differences and issues can be solved when each of us take the initiative to change our perceptions and understanding of the existing conditions. We strongly have to believe that these situations can be corrected, a strong determination to correct these situations, confidence in oneself and in the people that with efforts from everyone we can bring a change and using all the resources to bring development to the society.

We are blessed with many things that can be a strong pillar of support for social change. Each one us can be an agent of change. This is an invitation to all the right thinking citizens that this can instil, inspire, and ignite our minds and thoughts for a bright and prosperous Nagaland if we together in our given capacities.

Fr. Joe Mariadhas St. Joseph’s College Jakhama - Nagaland

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

_

LEISURE

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

SUDOKU Game Number # 2837

DAILY CROSS WORD

CROSSWORD # 2846

DIMAPUR Civil Hospital:

STD CODE: 03862

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

Answer Number # 2836

KOHIMA

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

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

STD CODE: 0370

Northeast Shuttles

100/2244279 2222222 2222111 2222952 2222916 2243339 2224202

O

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Our Class :) ANDRE

HYRUM

ANGELINA

ISAAC

ASHLEY

KENDALL

BAYLEE

LAINEY

BOBBY BRAD BRANDEN

MAIYA MAX MIKAYLA

BRENNAN

NICK

CHLOE

RILEY

COLIN

SIERRA

COLLIN

TAYLOR

CORRAN

TREY

HANNAH

WYATT

D

G T R C O R R A N N N R W T R I

B R A D F M S S B I M A I Y A E

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R E R I F B K I L K E N D A L L

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E N A A I A C B E R L I R N A R

S E N N A R A R B Y R E A U R A

A

Q E D N A W I C A Y U A N L T U

S L R A G L M K A A H E D A O Y

R

N Y E H E U I N C R C I E I S E

A A O Y R M G B U O L H N N I L

S B N Y O E R O T E L R E E A H

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I I H V L E G T E E E L T Y R S

T Z E I N Q A P U T F R I I J A

E R N N I Y D I I O T D C N M L

R A A R W C H L O E U Z M A X R

L N T A Y L O R E S D U E I R S

ACROSS 1. “Oh my!”

5. Coffees 10. Carry 14. Achy 15. Domicile 16. Wild goat 17. Pullover 19. No more than 20. Poetic dusk 21. Any animal with no feet 22. Blood vessels 23. Coureur de bois 25. Fasteners for wood 27. Paddle 28. The area around a barn 31. Drudges 34. Negate 35. Prefix meaning “Modern” 36. Apprentice 37. A crime syndicate 38. Leave in a hurry 39. Historic period 40. Moses’ brother 41. Accomplishments 42. Threatening 44. Type of airplane 45. Secluded valleys 46. Otalgia 50. Spirits 52. Sound with a

monotonous hum 54. Female chicken 55. Initial wager 56. A sporting competition 58. Male deer 59. Grain disease 60. Feudal worker 61. Sharpen 62. Manicurist’s board 63. Russian emperor

DOWN 1. Something of value 2. Not upper 3. Sporting venue 4. Ocean 5. An opaque form of quartz 6. Loathe 7. Cancel 8. Epinephrin 9. Collection 10. At an opportune time 11. Dutiful or submissive behavior 12. Small slender gull 13. X X X X 18. Paperlike cloths 22. A climbing plant 24. Jump up and down 26. Diva’s solo 28. Obscure 29. Absorb written material 30. Specks

31. Flower stalk 32. Stringed instrument 33. Large long-armed ape 34. Appear at county fairs 37. Principal 38. Bristle 40. Air force heroes 41. Skin layer 43. Assert without proof 44. Chipper 46. Mistake 47. A type of board game 48. Reddish brown 49. Go in 50. Cummerbund 51. Savvy about 53. Large 56. T 57. Got together Ans to CrossWord 2845

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

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

Toll free No. 1098 childline

H

DIMAPUR: 03862-232201/101 (O) 9436601225 (OC)

TUENSANG: 03861-220256/101 (O) 8974322879

CHILD WELFARE COMMITTEE

W

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

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

08974997923

MOKOKCHUNG:

FIRE STATIONS

STD CODE: 0369

Police Station 1: Police Station 2 :

2226241 2226214

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

2226216 2226263 2226373/2229343

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

222246 222491

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The Morung Express

Thursday 3 April 2014

NSCN (K) members KV Pusa calls DAN govt 22join GPRN/NSCN ‘anti-women’ and ‘anti-poor’ kohima, april 2 (mExN): Intensifying its campaign with only few days left for the state to go to polls, Congress today slammed Naga People’s Front (NPF) led Democratic Alliance of Nagaland (DAN) government for the ever increasing graft and complete halt of development in the state, according to a press release.

Addressing public rallies in Longleng and Mokokchung, Congress candidate KV Pusa criticized the DAN government accusing them of corruption and emptying the state coffer. He stated that the condition of the people have reached the “lowest ebb” due to corruption and bad governance by Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, who is also contesting the Lok Sabha polls.

Pusa cited the examples of state government’s inability to pay the salaries of Government teachers for the last couples of months, non-regularization of work-charged government employees de-

spite assurance given to them before the last state general election, backdoor appointment of thousands of people, passing a resolution against granting of 33% reservation to women in the state assembly. He termed Rio’s DAN as antiwomen and anti-poor government.

The congress candidate also highlighted some of the promises of the Congress such as 100 crore jobs for educated unemployed youth in the country, empowerment of women, health care and education for all, bank account for all, and a soft loan upto Rs. 1 lakh especially for women.

The Congress leader also castigated former Lok Sabha MP, CM Chang and Rajya Sabha MP Khekiho Zhimomi for siphoning off public funds. The release stated that a document obtained through RTI had revealed that from 2009-2013, the two MPs had “grossly” misused the funds leaving most of the districts untouched by the MPLADS. Pusa said the

two MPs had withdrawn funds without implementing any projects. In this, he questioned the conscience of the people whether they were still ready to vote for such people.

He further alleged that all flagship programmes were rampantly misused by the state government.

Meanwhile, addressing a huge rally in Mokokchung, Pusa asserted that the 2014 Parliamentary Election is a fight between secular and communal, divisive politics and inclusive politics, a fascist organization and purely democratic organization.

He appealed to the voters of Mokokchung district to “lead us into light as we not only fight this election for political or power's sake but for the protection and larger interest of minorities in India.” He urged to vote for Congress “to defeat the Hindutva fanatics who have been subjugating Christians.”

Criticizing the DANBJP alliance, Pusa further stated BJP is the political

wing of RSS. “Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), an outfit under RSS is responsible for carrying out a thousand of atrocities against Christians, terming them as a westeners! Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram (VKS), another outfit of RSS is responsible for converting tribal and adivasi Christians into Hindu through coercion.”

Pusa also assured the electorates of the state equal distribution of funds and inclusive development “unlike the ruling DAN which has ruled the state for the last 11 years with favoritism.” He was confident of UPA coming back to power with thumping majority. He asked people not to be carried away by false propaganda unleashing by the BJP and the NPF. Z. Lohe, former Assembly Speaker and former Advisor to Chief Minister Rio who accompanied the Congress candidate also spoke in the rallies. He alleged that Rio is trying to run away from the state due to rampant corruption he has created.

Forest fire in Jalukie, JPYO cautions perpetrators JalukiE, april 2 (mExN): Despite many warnings and awareness to the general public, Jalukie Pumling Youth Organization (JPYO) has stated, jungle fire remains the menace of Jalukie area endangering wild animals and the lives and properties of the villagers nearby.

Underlining the forest fire which erupted today at Jalukie Students’ Union (JSU) Reserved Forest, JPYO in a press release issued by President Ituhangbe Hin-

JPYO members controlling the fire at Jalukie Students’ Union (JSU) Reserved Forest in Jalukie on April 2. (Photo by Ilues)

gleu has warned the perpetrators to restrain from such destructive act for no gain or selfish motive. It also called

upon the government to come forward and help the struggling public in controlling such calamities and

asked the Fire Department to deploy fire services at vulnerable sites before “the trend goes out of control.”

The superintendent of excise & prohibition Katoho Sumi stated that the accused identified as Sanjay Thapa, and Samanata Deori, were booked under Sec 3 (1) for violation of NLTP Act ’89 and the seized consignment were deposited at Excise Malkhana, Kohima.

Sumi informed that various law enforcing

Pre-matric minority scholarship kohima, april 2 (mExN): The District Education Officer, Kohima has informed all the head of institutions under Kohima district to collect the pre-

matric minority scholarship form (Fresh & Renewal) for the session 2014-15 within the month of April 2014 during office hours from DEO, Kohima office.

footing to contain smuggling of illicit/illegal liquor especially during Lok Sabha election.

He stated that the Assam Rifles have courageously proved time and again by action that prohibition can be implemented and free flow of liquor from neighboring Assam via Dimapur to other districts of Nagaland can be brought to a record low in terms of transport, sale and possession.

Stating that surprise checking will be carried out in future as well, he requested the public to bear with the inconveniences during such time.

The collective leadership of the GPRN/NSCN along with the ‘homecomers’.

Dimapur, april 2 (mExN): All together 22 members of the NSCN (K) have joined the GPRN/ NSCN fold. The GPRN/ NSCN led by the collective leadership, President Gen. (Retd.) Khole and Ato Kilonser N. Kitovi Jimomi along with the NPAC members, the council of Kilonsers, Tatars and HoDs held a short program on April 2 in honour of the home coming members, which was led by Kilonser Kughalu Mulatonu, and Colonel Vikato Sumi.

A press release from MIP, GPRN/NSCN in-

formed that during the program, the President encouraged all national workers to work in coherence under one platform, adding that, nothing good can come out of Naga Nationalism if there is no unity among brothers.

The Head Chaplain of the Council Headquarters led the program in prayer, after which, Alezo Venuh, the Envoy to collective leadership welcomed the ‘homecomers’. Singson Kuki, the convener of Ceasefire supervisory Board (CSFB) and Kughalu Mulatonu, Kilonser also delivered short speeches.

The names and designation of the ‘homecomers’: 1. Kughalu Mulatonu Kilonser 2. Vikato Sumi Colonel 3. Kivixu Sumi Lieut. Colonel 4. Hoikhu Major 5. Vikaho Captain 6. Akheto Captain 7. Vikaho Captain 8. Visheto Captain 9. Yeli Captain 10. Akahuto Lieutenant 11. Tokiho 2nd Lieutenant 12. Hemanto 2nd Lieutenant 13. Kivito 2nd Lieutenant 14. Amento 2nd Lieutenant 15. Vika Corporal 16. Robert Corporal 17. Shikato Corporal 18. Premy Corporal 19. Lovino Corporal 20. Khekato Corporal 21. Hekato Corporal 22. Kivigho Secretary

to inspect agricultural scenario kohima, april 2 (mExN): RK Singh, Joint Secretary, Department of Agriculture & Co-opn, GoI, who is the nodal officer for Nagaland & Arunachal Pradesh, recently visited the State Agriculture Department with the purpose of reviewing agriculture activities, specifically the CSS schemes under implementation.

Accompanied by the Directorate and District Agriculture officers, a daylong field visit was made to Khuzama TRC and Jhum potato fields, traditional beekeeping methods of Mima vil-

lage, ATMA Fishery Farm school, RKVY sponsored marketing shed and irrigation structures, and mechanized land preparations of the Mima Rice bowl areas on March 28.

A press release from Additional Director of Agriculture, L Mero informed that the villagers of both Khuzama and Mima interacted with the visiting officer on the CSS programme benefits and constraints faced.

On the evening of his arrival on March 27, a meeting was also held with the APC & Commissioner Secretary Imkon-

glemba, IAS, Director of Agriculture N Tekatushi Ao and officers of the Agriculture Directorate at Hotel Japfu. The state agriculture profile, CSS plans and revised new guidelines, farming scenario in the state and implementation aspect were mostly discussed at length besides an appraisal of the Gol funding pattern, installment release and related issues.

Before leaving for Delhi, RK Singh also inspected the State Bio-control, State Bio-Fertilizer Labs and SAMETI at Medziphema on the March 29.

Phoms celebrate Monyiü festival at Tourism Village Pongo loNglENg, april 2 (mExN): Monyiü, the most important festival of the Phoms, was celebrated at Tourism Village Pongo on April 2 with H. Leisha Phom, President, Phom Peoples’ Council (PPC) as the chief guest.

Speaking on the occasion, the chief guest dwelled on the importance of preserving culture and tradition in the purest sense. Right after the sow-

ing season is over, Monyiü is celebrated from April 1 to 6 every year to thank God and ask blessing for good harvest, where the family members, friends, in-laws and loved ones are invited and share Monyiü feast.

The chief guest also reminded the people that the right spirit of Monyiü is giving and sharing with the needy people. The chief guest also urged the Government of Nagaland and

the Department of Tourism in particular, for infrastructural development at the Tourism Village Pongo.

Matong Angh, Vice President, Phom Students’ Conference; Hamvok Head DB Tamlu; and Khangyong, GB Pongo Village also delivered short speeches.

Pongo and Hongnyi Village presented cultural presentation like folk dance and beating of the Log drum respectively.

Coco area to support Neiphiu Rio Dimapur, april 2 (mExN): Coco area comprising six polling stations, under the initiative of former minister, Doshehe Y. Sema, has declared “all out” support to DAN consensus candidate Neiphiu Rio in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. A press release from chairman, Coco Area Joint Council (CAJC), M Hokiye Assumi informed that this was decided on March 25 during a meeting at Akuhaito organised by the CAJC under which five villages fall.

The Coco area also expressed happiness at the

developmental activities that took place in Atoizu area during the time of Doshehe as minister. Some notable developments included inauguration of RD Block Akuhaito, EAC Akuhaito, ADC Atoizu, EAC Saptiqa, PHC Akuhaito, construction of Coco Doyang road first phase etc, the note added.

Meanwhile, the Coco area has earnestly requested the DAN government to post EAC, BDO and doctor at Akuhaito “which is in dire need of the officers for fruitful functioning of the various government de-

partments.”

The note further recalled that the state cabinet had taken decision in December 2007 to introduce degree course in Civil Engineering at Atoizu Polytechnic, but till today, the Course is yet to start. Towards this, the Coco area has appealed to the government to start the classes at the earliest in the interest of the students and public.

The Coco area also lauded Independent MLA, Er. Picto Shohe who along with his supporters have declared to support the NPF candidate.

5

MEx FILE Dimapur district BLOs informed Dimapur, april 2 (mExN): The Booth Level Officers (BLOs) under Dimapur district have been informed to collect their remuneration for distribution of EPIC and voter slips for the forthcoming Lok Sabha Elections on April 3 from the Election Branch, office of the DC & DEO, Dimapur between 11:00 am and 3:00 pm.

WSKH emergency meeting

Assorted liquor seized in Kohima Central officer visits Nagaland of canned beer. agencies have set on war

kohima, april 2 (mExN): The 19th Assam Rifles on April 1, during an operation with police representatives from Police Station (North), Kohima intercepted Maruti vans with registration numbers AS12-5597 and NL-02-C-1310 at Naga Hospital junction Kohima carrying assorted liquor: 59 cases of MC rum, MC whisky and 2 numbers

Dimapur

Dimapur, april 2 (mExN): The Western Sumi Kukami Hoho (WSKH) has convened an emergency meeting of its office bearers, executive members and advisors on April 4, 10 am at the Hoho office at Chekiye village. All members concerned have been informed to attend the meeting without fail.

PDTTU appeals to stop taxation on timber traders JalukiE, april 2 (mExN): Peren District Timber Traders’ Union (PDTTU) has expressed strong support to the “wide and bold step” taken by Nagaland Timber Traders’ Union (NTTU) against heavy taxation imposed by Naga Political Groups on timber traders.

In a press release, PDTTU further expressed concern that if rampant taxation/ collection is not stopped on the timber traders, there will be no way to earn a little profit, “leave aside to run families after spending huge amount/ time and hard works with our sweat.” Therefore, PDTTU has appealed to the authorities concerned to stop the illegal collection/ taxation at the earliest in order to streamline the business.

Inspection of candidates’ expenditure accounts kohima, april 2 (Dipr): The 1st and 2nd inspection of the candidates’ expenditure accounts of all the different political parties for the Nagaland Parliamentary Election by Expenditure Observer Sushil Kumar Singh (IDAS), senior deputy, IFA was completed on March 29 and April 2 respectively. The last inspection of the same will be conducted on April 6, 2014 at DC’s conference hall, Kohima.

Independent of 9th Kohima Town A/C clarifies kohima, april 2 (mExN): Central Executive Body, Independent party of 9th Kohima Town assembly constituency has clarified on the “appeal” made by Dr. Er. Vikuotuolie Angami, ex Independent candidate of the constituency, which appeared in the local dailies.

A press statement appended by president, Youth Independent and president, Central Body Independent said that in the appeal, Dr. Er. Vikuotuolie Angami had mentioned he is confident that all his electorates who stood by him in the last general election (2013) would cast 100% of their votes in favour of Neiphiu Rio in the ensuing Lok Sabha elections. However, the statement asserted, “he is confident” is only his “wishful thinking” and the appeal was made without the knowledge of the Central Executive Body. While clarifying its stand, the Executive Body appealed to the public to not be misled by “his wishful imaginations.”

Longsa Village Wokha supports Rio Wokha, april 2 (mExN): The Longsa Village Council along with Longsa Village Eloe Hoho, Longsa Village Students’ Union, and Longsa Village Youth Organisation held a meeting at the Village Community Hall on March 31, 5:00 pm in the presence of MLA Dr. T. M. Lotha, and NCP Party officials and unanimously resolved to extend full support to Neiphiu Rio, the DAN consensus candidate for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. A press release from chairman, Longsa Village Council, informed that the meeting also resolved to call upon all the Village electorates to come and cast their vote as per the decision of the joint meeting to strengthen the hands of Dr. T. M. Lotha and for the success of the DAN Candidate Neiphiu Rio.

NPF 40 Bhandari A/C resolves to support Rio Wokha, april 2 (mExN): The 40 Bhandari A/C DAN camping committee held a meeting at Bhandari town on April 1 in the presence of Minister Y. Patton. The meeting was attended by NPF, JDU and NCP. A press release from NPF 40 Bhandari A/C informed that besides Y. Patton, former candidate Achumbemo Kikon, and Mhonjan Lotha spoke at the meeting. According to the note, the meeting resolved to give “unflinching support” to DAN consensus candidate Neiphiu Rio in the forthcoming Lok Sabha election.

Peren DPDB meeting deferred

Participants of the three-day teachers’ training being held for NBCC member schools of Peren and Dimapur districts at Christian Higher Secondary School, Dimapur. Altogether 42 teachers from 11 schools have registered for the training that is being held focusing on imparting teaching skills to teachers of mathematics, English and music.

The training will conclude on April 4.

Cong election campaign in Rio's bastion kohima, april 2 (mExN): Former Congress candidate for 11 Northern Angami – II A/C, Kevise Sogotsu, has hit out at Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, for wasting the state’s resources to fund his election campaigns in other states, at the cost of development of the state and his constituency.

Kicking off the election campaign of Lok Sabha Congress candidate, KV Pusa, in Northern Angami –II A/C on Wednesday, Kevise in his address at Teichüma and Tsiemekhuma villages said the chief minister who was elected by public of Northern Angami –II A/C has now completely deserted them and that instead of first seeking blessings from his constituency

people, Rio was busy campaigning in other states.

“Rio is always busy campaigning in Manipur and other NE states spending huge money on these campaigns. It would have been better if he utilized the money for development and welfare of his people. Whereas Rio is wasting money in other states, many of our constituency people cannot afford even a kilo of pork or milk powder,” the former Congress candidate said.

Kevise contested against Rio in the last assembly election in 2013.

“Instead of personally coming and seeking blessings from his constituency people for the Lok Sabha election, he (Rio) is sending

his ‘yes men’ and contractors to every village in our constituency to campaign for him,” Kevise said.

He said that Rio’s agents who are campaigning for him are not doing so in the interest of the people but for their own “vested interests” and flattering the villagers to clear their own ways. “These agents (contractors) campaigning only because they want their pending bills to be released,” Kevise added.

The chief minister’s rival however cautioned that once the Congress comes to power or wins the assembly seat vacated by Rio, the latter’s “agents would face the music as payment of bills would depend on the quality of works executed.”

pErEN, april 2 (Dipr): The Deputy Commissioner & Vice Chairman DPDB Peren, Peter Lichamo has informed all District Planning & Development Board members, Peren that the monthly DPDB meeting for the month of April has been deferred to April 15 (Tuesday) at 11 am in the Conference Hall of Deputy Commissioner, Peren. Therefore all DPDB members have been informed to make it convenient to attend the meeting without fail.

Phek micro-observer training phEk, april 2 (mExN): The Deputy Commissioner Phek, CM Tsanglao, IAS, has informed all the microobservers under Phek district that there will be training on April 4 at DC’s Chamber at 11:00 am. Therefore, all concerned have been requested to attend the training without fail.

WSBAK youth leaders’ training concludes Dimapur, april 2 (mExN): The WSBAK Youth Department conducted its youth leaders’ training at WSBAK Mission Center, Aküvüto from March 25 to 27.

The resource persons were H. S. Rotokha, Secretary, I. Lozhevi and K. Hesso from Sümi Literature Board. The speakers were Rev. S. Vitoshe Swu, Executive Secretary; Easter H. Shohe, Secretary, Women Department; Khetoni Shikhu, Women Evangelist; and Inotoli S. Chisho, Office Assistant, WSBAK. The training particularly focused on learning the Sümi vernacular and also on preserving “our” culture and tradition. Around 160 youth leaders and language teachers attended the training.

The Youth Secretary, WSBAK Rev. Ikuto Jimo in a press note has extended gratitude to the resource persons, speakers, youth leaders under WSBAK and participants for making the program successful.

6

IN-FOCUS

The Power of Truth

The Morung Express THursDAy 3 APrIl 2014 volumE IX IssuE 90

By Aheli moitra

You and I, in this mathematical world

M

athematics is useful in being able to make sense of the world around us. In its many forms— arithmetic (number sense), algebra (patterns and sets), geometry (spatial sense), measurement (measure and compare), data analysis and probability (organizing information)—it gives us tools to untangle the mess the world often creates.

Without a sense of mathematics, generations, of say the Nagas, would not have known cropping patterns, spacing, seasons, agricultural (or sun and moon) cycles, crop varieties, or weaving trends. So let us keep aside the myth that “Nagas are poor at math.” Perhaps the occurrence of poor performance in math could be correlated to problems in modern math teaching methodology.

According to the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER—facilitated by Pratham), 38.2% of children in Class 8, from among 10 districts of Nagaland, can subtract. 57% of these kids can divide numbers. Worse, a percentage of children from Classes 1 to 5 cannot even recognize numbers.

Compare this to the nearly 50% children, who at the age of 3 (as of 2013), remain out of pre-school according to the study.

As time goes by, the study suggests that more parents opt for private school education for their pupils. As most private schools are comparatively expensive (than government schools), parents who can afford this can also afford more out-of-school paid tuition classes for their wards. Despite this trend, students, between Classes 1 to 8, show a poor understanding of arithmetic, projects the ASER. Expensive education, with increasingly better infrastructure and facilities, is not cracking the mathematical puzzle for children in Nagaland (though they show to help).

Mathematical anxiety is a common phenomenon the world over. Studies suggest that by kindergarten, “it is common for children to use counting in a more sophisticated manner by adding and subtracting numbers,” the basics of which are picked up at pre-school. As a high percentage of children remain out of pre-school in Nagaland, an organized way to think also through numbers, patterns, space or measurement evades them. As the child grows, math becomes more complicated and incomprehensible—combined with a competitive system of examinations, and propensity of teachers (and parents) towards punishment, failure and anxiety become entrenched in mathematical learning, producing obvious disability. There is a case here for laying a solid foundation for math to take root at a young age, and flower in the child’s mind in the future.

The statistics produced by the ASER needs a parallel correlation to the decreasing number of youth partaking in agricultural activities in Nagaland. The math that could be picked up through this informal schooling, a potent way to lay a foundation, is disappearing. The Right to Education that a child below the age of 14 has in India, thus, needs to gain a contextual depth.

Whether it is about learning math, languages or the sciences, our foundation gains strength through the immediate spaces we interact with on a daily basis; governance needs to account for this to produce generations that can survive the world. And today, this world, for hoorah or alas, is mathematical.

If you have cracked the puzzle, please help me at moitramail@yahoo.com

Gillian Wong lEfT wiNg | Chris Brummitt and Associated Press

Malaysian credibility in jet hunt challenged again

I

t may mean little to investigators that the last words air traffic controllers heard from the lost jetliner were "Good night, Malaysian three-seven-zero," rather than "All right, good night." But to Malaysian officials whose credibility has been questioned almost from the beginning, it means a great deal.

Malaysian officials said more than two weeks ago that "All right, good night," were the last words, and that the co-pilot uttered them. They changed the account late Monday and said they are still investigating who it was that spoke. The discrepancy added to the confusion and frustration families of the missing already felt more than three weeks after Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared, and as of Tuesday officials had not explained how they got it wrong.

"This sort of mistake hits at the heart of trust in their communications. If Malaysia is changing what the pilot said, people start thinking, 'What are they going to change next?'" said Hamish McLean, an expert in risk and crisis communication at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia. "Information in a crisis is absolutely critical. When we are dealing with such a small amount of information it needs to be handled very carefully," he said.

Authorities have been forced on the defensive by the criticism, the most forceful of which has come from a group of Chinese relatives who accuse them of lying about — or even involvement in — the plane's disappearance. In part responding to domestic political criticism, defense minister Hishammuddin Hussein has taken to retweeting supportive comments on Twitter. He has twice in recent days proclaimed that "history would judge us well" over the handling of the crisis.

The government's opponents disagree. Opposition leader Lim Kit Siang said the correction set off a "medley of shame, sadness and anger" and strengthened the case for creating an opposition-led parliamentary committee to investigate the government's performance in the search. The communications skills of any government or airline would have been severely tested by the search for the Boeing 777-200 and its 239 passengers and crew. So far not a scrap of debris has been found.

"There has been very little to tell and a lot of unanswered questions," said Andrew Herdman, director-general of the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines. "There is frustration on the lack of new information, frustration over progress with investigations and the search. That frustration is being channeled to the Malaysian authorities but I think it's a bit premature to use that to reflect adversely on how they are doing."

Still, the government's handling of information has at times fed perceptions that it was holding back. From the first day of the search, crews were looking far to the west of the plane's last point of contact with air-traffic controllers, but it took about a week for officials to explain that radar had detected the plane in the area. "There are some things that I can tell you and some things that I can't," Malaysia's civil aviation chief said cryptically in the early days of the search.

"That was a terrible, terrible response," said Lyall Mercer, the principal of Australian-based Mercer PR, a public relations company. "It says to the families that 'we know things that we are not going to share' and that 'something else is more important than you'."

The piece of information that families most want to hear — whether their relatives are alive or dead — has remained impossible to say with finality, creating a dilemma for the government.

THE EDIT PAGE

C O M M E N T A R Y

Meena Degala Asia Times Online

India a nation failing to emerge

T

he rhetoric that has surrounded India's general election, which will be held from April 7 until May 12, underlines how domestic political parties are trying to manipulate the electorate into accepting one of their contrasting nationalist models.

While the ruling Congress party presents a model based on the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) forwards the obsolete Akhand Bharat, or "Undivided India" concept.

When India won freedom from Britain in 1947, much of the population had no understanding of what it meant to be "Indian". Most Indians only understood regional, caste and linguistic identities.

Since then, nationalism has been used by the elitists in political parties to advance their own interests.

The self-serving nationalist schemes are in contrast to the sustainable nationalism that can emerge as a byproduct of an empowered electorate and egalitarian society The Congress model The Congress model for India is based on Mahatma Gandhi's teaching. While Gandhi indeed did commendable work advocating non-violence as a resistance path, he had evolving opinions on important social reform issues. Gandhi had conflicting attitudes towards India's hereditary, vocation-based caste system and related "untouchability" customs that served to ostracize and segregate people.

In 1920, Gandhi asserted that every Hindu, "must follow the hereditary profession", and that "prohibition of intermarriage" between people of different castes was "necessary for a rapid evolution of the soul". Gandhi is said to have changed his view later.

The Congress Party's nationalist model is built on a deification of Gandhi, and it survives on caste politics while offering no solutions for eradicating this unhealthy custom. Caste identities are fostered solely for electoral gains. The survival of caste identities is very important for this party's electoral success.

Social reform leaders who campaign against caste have been systematically pushed aside by Congress in order to preserve the false image of a benevolent ruling dynasty.

The BJP model The BJP's nationalist theme is built on a hijacking of the concepts of Hindutva and Akhand Bharat.

While Akhand Bhara means "Undivided India", the term, "Hindutva" is not clearly defined. The BJP says it means Hindu cultural nationalism, but it has become associated with a complete ideology and culture that sets its followers apart.

Hindutva ideology elicits an intense emotional response against perceived attacks on Hinduism by Christians, Muslims or the West. Some of the actions associated with this ideology include deriding English as a decadent blotch on Indian culture, and attacking stores that sell Valentine's Day cards.

Many educated Hindus see Hindutva as a necessary evil to counter evangelical efforts to convert India's poor and untouchables to Christianity. India's lower castes have found no refuge in conversions, as an Indian Christian pastor once remarked, "for Indian Christians, caste is first, Christ is second and mere preaching won't do". Caste has become a cultural phenomenon and is practiced across religions.

The Undivided India concept refers to the Indian subcontinent as it existed before India was partitioned in 1947 and the independence of Bangladesh in 1971. However, the BJP has no desire to merge India with Pakistan and Bangladesh.

This term is most likely used to disseminate the idea that India was historically a united coherent entity and to help construct a Hindi identity. The fact remains that India, as it now exists, has never existed before in history, and the India of today more closely resembles the India defined by the British in 1947.

The BJP currently seeks a mandate on Hindu cultural nationalism, pledging that it will also streamline taxation, cut red tape and launch major infrastructure projects such as high-speed trains.

Sustainable nationalism: Equality and empowerment Elitist nationalism projects rarely succeed. In India's current state, nationalist projects more of-

F

or over a quarter of a century, Uhla Min has lived under the spell of the Lady, the popular nickname for Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. His involvement with Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) party dates back to the days when Suu Kyi launched a campaign in the late 1980s to rid Myanmar of military rule.

Min, now 75, has vivid memories of listening to Suu Kyi speak at the famed Shwedagon Pagoda in the then capital, Yangon, and of running from soldiers chasing down street protestors. He lost his government job because of his support for the NLD. Min was jailed in July 1989 when Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest. For the next 25 years, their lives took parallel paths. Suu Kyi would be confined to her house in Yangon under house arrest, and Min would be in and out of jail. He was tortured, like many other NLD activists.

"Jail was an endless horror, we were beaten until we fainted," said Min, now chairman of the organizing committee at the NLD headquarters in Yangon.

Like many others in jail facing a bleak future, Min had one hope. "We all knew that the Lady was with us, she was like that small beacon of hope in that very dark place we found ourselves in."

The allure of Suu Kyi has not diminished for him, or for many others. Earlier this month, Zaw Linn Oo, program director for the Sopyay Myanmar De-

India's ruling Congress party president Sonia Gandhi, center, reaches out to shake hands with supporters behind barricades during an election rally in Lakhimpur in the northeastern state of Assam, India on Sunday, March 30, 2014. India will hold national elections from April 7 to May 12, kicking off a vote that many observers see as the most important election in more than 30 years in the world's largest democracy. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)

ten serve as a smokescreen for various injustices of the power elite. A sustainable democracy that seeks to live in its present and has a sense of cohesive nationalism needs an empowered electorate and an egalitarian society.

In India, there is caste discrimination, gender discrimination and class feudalism. Class feudalism runs across genders and castes. The bulk of India's poor is comprised of castes considered "untouchable" - 98% of "untouchable" or Dalit castes live in poverty.

Although outlawed, caste discrimination is rampant in rural India. Caste perpetuates poverty through denial of opportunity. In urban cities, special vegetarian caste-based Hindu apartments have been propping up in Mumbai, Chennai and Gujarat. Housing is being splintered along caste, religious and ethnic lines.

In 2009, when the United Nations Human Rights Council declared that discrimination based on caste was "human-rights abuse", India fought vehemently to stop a related resolution. India's urban elite argue that caste has already been abolished because government outlawed untouchability.

This ignores the fact that 75% of marriage advertisements explicitly mention caste - India's arranged marriage system has in recent years increasingly used advertising in newspapers and online. The country's leading marriage website, BharatMatrimony.com, lists caste as a mandatory field in its membership registration form.

Racism is considered a public health issue by sections of the international community and so should the practice of caste. Medieval caste practices cause psychological issues such as stress, anxiety and feelings of anger and rejection among members of lower castes. It also creates feelings of guilt or superiority among upper castes, and there are significant gaps in health outcomes between lower and upper caste groups.

It is imperative to recognize caste as a public health issue, and to maintain score cards on caste eradication similar to those for smoking, polio or malaria. To eliminate caste discrimination and hierarchy, caste identity and caste-based endogamy needs to be dismantled.

Similar to China's one-child policy, innovative policies should be tailored to local situations in each state and a change of semantics may be required.

Large scale public health campaigns are required.

These need to be supported by policies like: • Banning caste-based societies and caste-based marriage advertisement to stigmatize and delegitimize the practice of caste; • Incentivizing village priests and school teachers for caste elimination metrics. Encouraging gen-

der and caste diversity in priesthood profession; • Inoculating children by incorporating caste reform thoughts into the curriculum and mandating logic as a high school course; • Incentivizing inter caste marriages between the lowest and upper caste groups. These marriages are subject to special stresses and societal strains.

Policies like these need to be evaluated and implemented at a state level. The World Health Organization and UN human-rights advocates could be invited to partner with local state governments and evaluate policies and progress.

A monolithic, centralized power structure prevails in India. A fair policy that is responsive to local needs will never evolve in the current structure.

The electoral politics of every state and coalition interest need to be considered in order for any national policy to be formulated. Two-thirds of India's taxes are collected by the national government and are often distributed in ways that reward badly managed states with more electoral clout than other states.

To date, no country with a significant population has emerged out of poverty without a manufacturing base that employs its masses. India's rigid labor laws (such as the one that requires manufacturing units with over 100 employees to receive government permission to fire employees) were designed like Sovietstyle socialism where public enterprise is administered by government.

These laws fail in a world of competitive global forces and deprive India's poor of millions of productive manufacturing jobs. Labor law reform is blocked by states with strong labor unions, while less rigid states such as Andhra Pradesh and Goa have been seeking change. A federalist form of government would decentralize, localize, empower and hold states responsible for their policies and finances.

A united opposition can succeed At present, India has 80 million unemployed and 250 million underemployed youths. Youth unrest and violent confrontations with the state are on the rise. In the absence of fresh thinking, reactionary forces may emerge on the scene in the near future.

Revolutions are often unsuccessful and dismantle productive structures. Reforms are often sustainable, but they need to be driven by a vocal and engaged electorate. The future of India depends on social and constitutional reforms led by the people.

It is time for India's educated youth, social reformers and millions of marginalized individuals to join hands and develop cohesive reforms that create a sustainable future.

Meena Degala is an Indian entrepreneur living in the US. She is also a public health expert.

Politics take the shine off Suu Kyi Amantha Perera Inter Press Service velopment Organization, a non-governmental group working on development issues, sat transfixed in the hotel lobby where Suu Kyi launched her new Suu Foundation.

He had not heard her speak in person for more than a decade. "I am so excited," Oo said after listening to the icon of democracy. Oo’s associations with the NLD were peripheral. He remembers the big meetings in 1988 and then again in 2008. "I was never a fulltime activist," says Oo. But, he said, he knows that "she is the only one who has been true to us".

At the NLD office, U Thein, a young woman in her late 20s, shares the same sentiment. She became an NLD volunteer 10 years back, soon after she left school.

Her family was against the move. "They felt it was dangerous, and it was. People were being arrested and put in jail just for speaking her name in public."

She said that Suu Kyi appealed to her because she was taking on a corrupt and violent leadership without resorting to violence herself. "Every time I saw her picture or heard her voice, I felt so much peace." She joined

Suu Kyi’s then underground party and dropped earlier thoughts of seeking a government job.

This enduring image of the Lady as the champion of rights in the Gandhian mold, is now being challenged by the more practical image of Suu Kyi the politician.

Since she was released from house arrest in November 2011, and Myanmar opened up under the leadership of President Thein Sein, Suu Kyi has embarked on a campaign to wrest control from the Sein government, which is backed by the army. The challenge will be the next elections, due in 2015.

She has now had to plunge into the world of realpolitik. "She is faced with a tough decision here," says a Western diplomat. "There is no one as charismatic as her who can lead the party, there is no one with her star power. But by getting into street politics, she has allowed her image as the unsullied democracy icon to be open to attack."

Suu Kyi has been criticized for not taking a tougher stance on raging racial violence in Myanmar, and some of her party supporters now say that

wRiTE-wiNg

years of isolation have made her uncompromising.

She also faces constitutional challenges that prevent her from assuming leadership of the country. Article 59 of the 2008 Constitution states that national leadership is not permitted to anyone whose spouse or children are citizens of another country.

This effectively bars Suu Kyi from the presidency.

She has called for amendments to the constitution but has been ambiguous whether she would push for an all-out campaign ahead of the next elections.

"A politician thinks of the next election, a statesman thinks of the next generation," she said at the launch of her foundation. "We all have to remember that the 2015 election is just a stepping stone, and a long journey lies ahead of this country."

Reacting to criticism that she has been too quiet on racial violence, Suu Kyi said the answer to most problems facing Myanmar would be establishment of the rule of law.

Min has no doubt that Suu Kyi, if elected president, would inherit a monumental mess. "This is a divided country ruled by the military for over 50 years.

She cannot make it right overnight."

The next few months will be pivotal to how future generations remember her, he says. "No matter what happens, for us she has always been and will always be pure."

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

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

7

Thursday

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

3 April 2014

PERSPECTIVE NEWS ANALYSIS, FEATURE AND DISCOURSE

Venezuela: taking the counter- out of revolution

“B

efore, we wanted to change the world. Now we’re going to see if we can pave a few roads.” This epithet of José Mujica, avuncular president of Uruguay and former urban guerrilla, sums up the hard-earned wisdom of the Latin American left in power—in Chile, Brazil, Argentina and elsewhere. For the last 15 years, however, Venezuela’s government has read the message in reverse: forget the roads; change the world.

Wilfully eccentric and, on occasion, deeply flawed economic, social and foreign policies—none more so than vis-à-vis food and basic security—have resulted in a monumental challenge to the government of Nicolás Maduro, elected successor as president to Hugo Chávez. The protests, driven by students and whipped up by opposition leaders, have been classified by viral-media reflex as another instalment of popular revolt, centred on a basic middle-class wish for decent, effective, open government.

Fractal protests A close reading of the violence that has claimed 37 lives since February 12th would suggest something different. A mass national polarisation has assumed fractal form—small, side-street sub-plots of irreducible antagonism, with contrasting accounts of who pulled the trigger. According to the opposition, 20 have been killed for demonstrating. But attributing responsibility is phenomenally hard in a society where no security or judicial institution is independent and most victims seem to have died in a chaos of reckless urban crossfire.

One centre-right Argentine news outlet gave this breakdown a few days ago: “23 died due to firearms; five after hitting or avoiding barricades; two with their throats cuts by barbed wire; two accidentally; one after being beaten by the police; one knocked down.” Take two deaths reported on March 6th in a suburb of Caracas. The Associated Press and others said 100 members of progovernment, paramilitary, motorcycle gangs (colectivos) had arrived in the neighbourhood of Los Ruices to dismantle an opposition street barricade (guarimba). They were greeted by wolf-whistles and pelted with bottles. According to AP, “In the melee, a 24-year-old motorcycle taxi driver was shot dead ... a 25-year-old sergeant was shot through the neck and killed.”

It would be easy and temptingly cathartic to see the events as world punditry would have you see it: university kids against a tongue-tied tyrant, youth versus age, liberty versus oppression. But recent history cannot be blotted out. The 37 dead are not the classic fallen martyrs; nor are the protests a wave of the disenfranchised. Rather, they mark the most recent manifestation of the

Ivan Briscoe

long and intransigent resistance to the low-income electoral juggernaut of chavismo. What began as a failed coup in April 2002 morphed eight months later into a general strike against the government; a recall referendum was essayed and lost in 2004; mass electoral abstention followed a year later.

A new and seemingly effective means of campaign has been chosen, in which both moderates and radicals in the opposition can find a purpose. Mass urban protests and civil disruption are the methods. To beat the left in power, the resistance to chavismo has borrowed from the now-pragmatic guerrillas: take the “counter-“ out of revolution and man the communal barricades.

Sources of discontent It is difficult to begrudge the opposition their discontent. Statistics on poverty and public welfare confirm the gains made under Chávez through his social reorientation of oil revenues. But idiosyncratic and populist economic policies have done much to paralyse the most basic market flows. Anecdotes abound of four-hour queues in state-provisioned supermarkets and missing toilet-rolls. In January, scarcity stood officially at 28%, meaning over one in four goods was unavailable. According to the Venezuelan Pharmaceutical Association, 40% of medicines are out of stock.

Neo-fascist hoarders and dark conspirators of the right can be blamed, if wished. But the satirical depiction of government policy by the reputed pollster and moderate critic of President Maduro, Luis Vicente León, seems far more credible: “We’re going to close the businesses that close and control the prices of the goods which aren’t there.”

Nor is economic failure the inevitable fate of a left-leaning Latin American government. Comparisons between the trajectories of Bolivia and Venezuela show the popular benefits of the chavista regime but also the waste of its oil fortunes.

Unlike Bolivia, Venezuela has spent its windfall and whittled down its foreign reserves. Argentina, under its profoundly Keynesian economy minister, Axel Kiciloff, has in the past two months skirted dire, Davos-like predictions of devaluation and ruin by giving free reign to a technocratic Central Bank governor. No such checks apply in Venezuela.

The economic malaise—the shortages, closures, 56% inflation, the latest devaluation this week—is much more than a minority, middle-class concern. Likewise, fear of crime touches all in Venezuela.

Amid polarised government and independent estimates, the most distinguished expert on crime, Roberto Briceño-León, reported more than 24,000 killings last year—next to Honduras in presenting the world’s highest homicide risk.

The authoritarian drift of the government, whether in deploying armed militia, packing the Su-

T

he disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 has presented two tales of modern technology.

The limitations of tracking and communications devices allowed the plane to vanish from sight for nearly three weeks.

But satellites' advanced capabilities have provided hope that the mystery won't go unsolved.

In this day and age of constant connection, the public has been surprised to learn that radar and satellites aren't actually allseeing, cellphone locations aren't always traceable and key data about the plane is only recorded, not transmitted in real time to the ground. And onboard tracking systems can be disabled manually — one theory holds that someone in the cockpit intentionally diverted the plane and disguised their actions.

"Technology can track a flight, but assuming malice was involved, it wouldn't change the outcome of this disaster. Only better human intelligence and screening can do that," said Richard Aboulafia, an aviation consultant with the Teal Group.

Still, the mystery of Flight 370 would have been even more perplexing if it wasn't for some of these technologies. The little information we have today about where the plane might have crashed came from satellites.

"If it weren't for the technologies, nobody would have had a clue where to look," said Scott Hamilton, managing director of aviation consultancy Leeham Co. Here is a look at how old and new technologies have aided or hindered the search effort.

TRANSPONDERS These cockpit devices send signals to radar stations on the ground with details about the plane's flight number, heading, speed and altitude. The transponder also can be used to send predetermined messages to air traffic controllers. For instance, if a plane's transponder squawks out a code of "7500" it means there has been a hijacking. A squawk of "7600" re-

Hand made posters are pasted on the wall outside of United Nations office in Caracas, Venezuela, Tuesday, March 25, 2014. The posters read in Spanish "Freedom", "No more repression", "No more political prisoners", "No more killed". A large group of protesting anti-government students have camped in front of the office of the United Nations asking it to come and observe the situation, as Venezuela’s bloody political standoff heads into its third month. The decision to pitch tents on the concrete sidewalk along one of Caracas’ busiest, smog-filled streets comes as foreign ministers from several South American nations arrive Tuesday to lend support to President Nicolas Maduro’s efforts at reconciliation with his opponents. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

preme Court or taking TV channels off air, garners the greatest international opprobrium and the most irate domestic opposition. And it has treated chavista hate figures— General Raúl Baduel, Iván Simonovis and even, on a lesser scale, a Financial Times freelance—with exceptional viciousness. Excuses are available, yet futile: a bombastic government represents the majority of its people with neither gentleness nor grace.

But successive election victories and consistent polling data underline that chavismo will not be defeated on the agenda of constitutional virtue.

Economics and crime are what motivate mass popular discontent. Yet the past one and a half months tell a story not of a shared public platform, and an eventual if reluctant state response, but of a social dissolution into teeming individual claims, each in search of a protector.

An extraordinary film made by pro-government media in Mérida, the Andean town that has become a protest heartland, tells the story of two communities living along a main road. One, reportedly the richer, has set up a barricade, where hooded, darkened shapes lurk, catcalling and menacing the poorer neighbours, who find it hard to get to work or even go shopping. The poor shout insults back at the rich, calling them mantenidos (spongers). The first woman to appear in the film, Gisela Rubilar Figueroa, has since been shot dead. This is not mass protest so much as atomised class war, an iteration of grudges and rivalries emanating from the brain stem of an oil state.

a new government turned into a zero-sum conflict shattering to the micro-scale is the core question.

Some protesters, notably the students of the Central University of Venezuela led by Juan Requesens, maintain a genuine mobilisation in the public interest—some have even led proselytising missions in the shanty towns, a peculiar reversal of the Peronist Youth’s doomed popular-education programmes of 1970s Argentina. Requesens and colleagues want political prisoners freed—there are 85 in jail for their part in the protests, according to the NGO Foro Penal—and the militias disarmed, plus a live, televised meeting between President Maduro and the opposition. Last year’s losing presidential candidate, Henrique Capriles, holds similar convictions; so do many of the more enlightened opposition figures.

Public opinion broadly aligns with these demands. The usually reliable polling agency Hinterlaces has recently found people worried over their economic futures, although 87% have no faith in barricades or violence to extract them from chavista mismanagement. Belief that Maduro should be kicked from office, in the manner of a number of Latin American presidents at the turn of the millennium, has receded quite quickly—with fear of what might take his place looming large.

This hefty bloc for moderation should in principle act as a brake on recourse to violent protest. It is still possible that this majority middle ground, whose shift to Capriles almost handed the opposition an astonishing victory last April, will be assisted by mediation by Latin Pulling to the extremes American states in the UNASUR How genuine discontent with bloc (whose foreign ministers con-

ducted a successful visit to Caracas last week), and possibly the Catholic Church (which proved vital in the resolution of Argentina’s crisis in 2002). The sudden eruption of peace should never be discounted, as Venezuela and Colombia memorably showed in resolving their border tensions of 2008.

The obstacles, however, will be immense. Talk of clearly definable sides, of the sort which backed Maduro or Capriles last year and which each enjoy huge numerical legitimacy, is no longer so pertinent. The opposition is manifestly divided and its main propulsive energy comes from the leaders who have adopted the salida (exit) strategy—the plan to topple the president through street agitation.

Leopoldo López is in jail; María Corina Machado has just been stripped of her parliamentary immunity. Seeking to lock both away appears to have redounded to the president’s benefit but this leaves the radical protest wing in place--just criminalised, localised and leaderless.

Maduro is a weak president, with a 1.5% margin of victory last year and little political capital to expend.

There is much speculation in diplomatic circles, and evidently in the US military, over how far the loyalty of the Venezuelan armed forces and the ruling PSUV party will stretch if the violence worsens. Should Maduro be scrutinising his support network for rogues and turncoats, it is unlikely he will feel sufficiently assured to hand any major concessions on policy or political participation to the opposition. It would suit him in the short term instead to engage in direct, winnable battles with the most radical diehards.

The government engages in the usual US-baiting rhetoric, laced with attacks on local fascists and some turgid chunks of Gramsci. The hard left consumes ideas such as those of the German Marxist Heinz Dieterich, who chides the government for its “fear of using state forces firmly and rapidly from the start to dismantle violent groups”. The opposition’s extremes are no better, refusing to recognise any merits in 15 years of chavista government and finding their convictions richly fulfilled by the riot police who greet protesters in Caracas or Táchira.

One implacable statement of hostility, the Mérida Manifesto by a group of students, refers to how “the Castro-communist regime with its paramilitary groups and the National Guard have killed, tortured and harassed comrades”.

The informal paramilitarism we are seeing on both sides is the product of a society besieged by criminal violence for two decades. The Guatemalan ethnographer Tani Adams argues that long-term exposure to chronic violence causes each citizen to assimilate a quota of fear into normal life, as “many people face both the challenge of multiple traumatic experiences in the past as well as the likelihood of continued traumatic experiences in the future”. One result

Technology hindered, helped search for MH370 fers to a radio failure and "7700" means an emergency.

Flight 370 took off from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia at 12:40 a.m. local time on March 8, heading to Beijing. Then at 1:20 a.m., the transponder stopped transmitting. The Boeing 777-200ER with 239 passengers and crew aboard kept flying for several hours but no further signals were ever received from the transponder.

It's rare for a commercial pilot to intentionally turn off a transponder during flight, but occasionally there is a legitimate reason, such as a malfunction, electrical short or fire. Pilots would want to shut it down rather than risk a fire spreading.

RADAR Radar was developed just before the start of World War II. The word radar is actually an acronym: radio (use the R and the A) detection and ranging.

An antenna on the ground sends out electromagnetic waves. They reflect, or backscatter, from the surface of an aircraft and almost instantly return to the radar station. Since these radio waves travel at a known, set speed — the speed of light — the radar system is able to calculate how far away a plane is from the antenna.

But radar's only able to track planes within 200 to 250 miles, depending on the age of the technology and the weather. Station locations are selected to allow for a slight overlap so planes in high-traffic areas are never out of reach.

In the case of the Malaysia Airlines jet, military radar picked up a signal at 2:14 a.m. of a plane flying in the opposite direction of Flight 370's original path. The radar signal was infrequent and there was no transponder data, making it harder to track.

Normally, when planes leave areas of radar coverage, pilots use high-frequency radios or satellite text communications to update air traffic controllers of their posi-

scott Mayerowitz Ap Airlines Writer tion at routine intervals.

SATELLITE TRACKING Some jets use satellites to regularly send maintenance data back to headquarters. Malaysia Airlines did not opt to subscribe to this service from Boeing. The jet's disappearance has many calling for airlines to live stream information from planes' voice and data recorders. However, transmitting data by satellite from all 80,000 daily flights worldwide wouldn't be cheap — it costs $7 to $13 a minute for each plane. And it's not like airlines are flush with extra cash. On average, they made $4.13 in profit per passenger last year and $2.05 in 2012.

Other satellite transmissions from the plane, however, helped searchers ultimately narrow in on the plane's final location in a remote part of the Indian Ocean.

The plane automatically sent a brief signal — a "ping" — every hour to a satellite belonging to Inmarsat, a British company, even after other communication systems shut down. The pings indicated that the jet kept flying for seven hours after its last radar contact.

Inmarsat was able to calculate two long arcs indicating where the plane might have flown. It refined that analysis by factoring in the jet's speed relative to the satellite.

The company gauged how the frequency was received and transmitted — the socalled Doppler effect is similar to the way the sound of a passing car changes as it approaches and passes by a fixed point.

This Burst Frequency Offset method had never been used before. Its validity was confirmed by applying the analysis to six other Boeing 777 flights — whose positions were known— on the same day, flying in various directions.

That new information led to an announcement Monday night by Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak that the plane ended its flight in a remote part of the Indian Ocean.

SATELLITE IMAGES Private satellites and those of several governments have spotted what were initially believed to be parts of the plane in the southern Indian Ocean, about 1,550 miles southwest of Perth, Australia. But the search area was moved 680 miles to the northeast on Friday, as Australian officials said a new analysis of radar data suggests the plane had flown faster and therefore ran out of fuel more quickly than had been previously estimated.

That means searchers have concluded that the hundreds of floating objects detected over the last week by satellite weren't from the plane after all. Any images picked up by satellites might be the best tool in ultimately finding the remains of the plane.

CELLPHONES Many people initially asked why cellphone GPS data couldn't be used to help find the missing plane. Several relatives of passengers said they were getting phones to ring, even if they remained unanswered. Smartphones can help pinpoint a person's location but only if they are near a cellular tower allowing the phone to transmit data. If a plane is 7 miles up in the air or flying over the ocean, the phone won't be able to connect with towers on land. As for why the phones kept ringing, that's sometimes what happens when a network can't locate a phone.

SEARCH PLANES Several planes are searching for the plane in an area that' an eight-hour roundtrip flight from their Australian base. That leaves only enough fuel a two-hour search

is the severing of social bonds beyond immediate family and friends, as well as the corrosion of empathy “when people are constantly spurred by survivalist motives”.

The pathologies of the Venezuelan psyche under the influence of criminal violence help explain the fanatical tensions that have surfaced between neighbouring communities. And no doubt pro-government militias and community self-defence groups recruit locals used to handling firearms for other purposes. Through this admixture of political and criminal violence, the road to civil war in Venezuela lies.

Supporting moderation Avoiding that outcome is not made any easier by the tendency inside and outside Venezuela to see the crisis through the filters of selfinterest and prejudice borrowed from the era of high Chávez. The left-leaning governments of Latin America are intent on preventing any precedent of presidential overthrow—hence the paralysis of the Organization of American States.

Cuba and the Caribbean dread a stoppage of cheap oil. Washington would be happy to rid itself of an irritant, while the liberal press and the digital spirits egg on the cause of middle-class revolution.

Arguments can be twisted into unusual shapes by the tangles of received wisdom. Noam Chomsky denounces any use of repressive state power while his followers applaud a crackdown in Caracas. Opponents of Maduro wail over the militarisation of their cities, even though for many this would be their preferred solution to violent crime. And according to reliable sources the Green Party MEP and hero of May 1968, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, has dissented from his own party’s pro-chavista instincts, insisting he would never fail to support a student revolt.

Partial truths and worsening polarisation will do little to pull the country out of its confrontational logic. Nothing is more important than for foreign governments and organisations to provide moderates on both sides with support and reassurance. Just as Capriles has preached against violent protest, parts of Maduro’s government have proved themselves sensitive to criticism: the attorney general, Luisa Ortega, has said 60 investigations of police officers for alleged humanrights violations are under way.

A common ground of dialogue could be found, were Latin American states, the European Union and neutral bodies to support it, on economic stabilisation and security reform. Talk of sanctions against government figures would have to be shelved and political prisoners released, with all parties accepting the schedule of forthcoming elections.

The self-righteous on any side would not be satisfied. But no one seems to have a clue as to the road ahead for Venezuela were its president to totter.

of the target area. Among the planes searching are a Lockheed P-3 Orion and a C-130 Hercules.

The flight crews use a radar system and infrared, long-range and high resolution cameras — plus their own eyesight — to search the ocean. They also films everything so they can review what they've seen after they return to base.

But the searches have been hampered by dangerously high winds and churning seas.

BUOYS A C-130 Hercules military transport plane has been dropping 3-foot long buoys with GPS into the water to help get a better understand of the ocean currents in the search area. While not perfect, the idea is to get clues about where crash debris might float over time to further refine the search.

BLACK BOXES There are two so-called black boxes, which are actually orange. One records conversations and noises in the cockpit.

The other saves key flight data such as speed and altitude.

The boxes are designed to withstand strong impacts and large fires. They also come with a device that pings to help searchers find it underwater, though the deeper the box, the more difficult it is to hear those pings. The U.S. Navy has sent a Towed Pinger Locator to the Indian Ocean.

It can hear the black box pinger down to a depth of about 20,000 feet.

The black box battery is required to last at least 30 days, but information can be retrieved for years. It took 23 months to find the black boxes from an Air France crash in 2009. All of the data was recovered.

In the case of Flight 370, there's a problem. The cockpit voice recorders only save the last two hours of conversations. The plane flew for nearly seven hours after the transponder stopped emitting a signal. So, any cockpit conversation or noises from when the plane initially went off course were likely recorded over.

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

8

Dimapur

NATIONAL

Thursday 3 April 2014

The Morung Express

End of dynasty rule has come: Modi

BUxAr, APril 2 (iAnS): BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi Wednesday called for an end to dynastic politics, saying there was no place for it in Indian democracy.

The Gujarat chief minister, who Wednesday addressed four rallies in Bihar and Jharkhand as part of his Bharat Vijay rally series, slammed the Congress-led government for not bringing back black money from foreign banks.

“The Congress is a party of mother and son, the Samajwadi Party is a father, son and daughter-in-law party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal is a husband and wife party, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha is a father and son party,” Modi said at a rally at Palamu in Jharkhand. “Dynastic politics has no importance in a democracy,” the Bharatiya Janata Party leader said.

In mica-rich Kodarma in Jharkhand, he said the state’s resources were being looted. “People of Jharkhand are suffering because natural resources are being looted here.” Modi slammed the Congress-led central government for not knowing the grassrootslevel realities while making plans.

“They make development plans in air conditioned rooms in Delhi, they have no connection with the people,” Modi said. “Election in Delhi is about capturing power, it’s a narrow view of de-

I will defeat Modi, never join BJP: Kejriwal

Bharatiya Janata Party or BJP supporters wait for the senior party leaders to arrive for the opening of the election office of their prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, seen on a billboard at left, in Varanasi, on April 1. (AP Photo)

mocracy.” In Buxar in Bihar, Modi vowed to bring back black money stashed in foreign countries if the BJP-led alliance is voted to power.

“If the Bharatiya Janata Party government is formed in Delhi, I promise to bring back the black money and it will be used for welfare schemes for the poor,” he said. “Give us all 40 seats in Bihar as we want to form a government in Delhi with over 300 seats to take the right decisions.”

He also remembered the victims of serial blasts

during his rally in Patna in October 2013 - in which five people were killed and over 80 injured - and slammed the administration for “sleeping” during the blasts. “The time for promises is gone. Now Bihar needs resolution,” Modi said.

Asking people to vote for the BJP, he said the Congress has not fulfilled any promises it had made in the 2009 polls. “The Congress manifesto is nothing but a dhokha-patra,” he said. In a bid to woo Yadav voters, Modi said he hails from Dwarka and hence it

was natural for him to be emotionally attached with the Yadav community.

In his rally at Nawada, Bihar, Modi accused the Congress-led union government of promoting the destruction of the country’s livestock. Modi said the union government was slashing subsidies on agriculture to encourage meat export.

“Bihar is a land of people who worship cows but leaders like Lalu Prasad have joined hands with those who are promoting meat export. The green revolution has been side-

lined and the government at the centre is destroying the country’s livestock in the name of the pink revolution,” he added.

Will revive ‘Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan’ spirit Ruing over the condition of farmers and soldiers in the country, Narendra Modi hit out at the Congress for ignoring their plight and said if elected, he would revive the spirit of ‘Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan’ slogan given by former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri. “What is the condition of kisans (farmers) and

Security beefed up at Welham Girls’ School after threat letter

dehrAdUn, APril 2 (Tnn): Welham Girls’ School, one of the most well known residential schools in the country, took special measures to secure its campus a day after receiving a threat letter, purportedly from the Indian Mujahideen.

The principal has allowed anxious parents to take their girls home for a week. Visitors are barred and all school trips have been cancelled till further notice. A mobile van with a wireless set has been stationed outside the school. Police on Cheetah bikes are keeping watch over students crossing the main road while moving from one campus to another.

Police personnel are deployed all around the campus. Senior Superintendent of Police Ajay Rautela

said CCTV cameras and metal detectors are being installed in the school premises, and fervent attempts are being made to track down the people behind the threat letter.

Principal Jyotsana Brar said in her mail to parents, “The Board of Governors does not wish to panic, nor do we want to take any chances. Hence, we are taking the threatening note very seriously. We are all aware of the current political climate and are determined to keep our children safe. We are receiving constant support from the police and a special security package has been put into place to make the campus and the surrounding area secure. I must assert that all of us staff members are firmly in school

to look after all the children here and we shall proceed with Board examinations and other school activities. The campus is quite safe and we shall continue to beef up on-campus security measures.

However, we are not allowing visitors and outings till further notice.

“Some parents may be feeling anxious. So, the Board of Governors has decided that students may go home with parents or local guardians for the next week. I will constantly be monitoring the situation along with theauthoritiesconcernedandwillremain in touch with all the families as we do not wish to disrupt school activities. The staff and I will be with the students staying on in campus at all times and will carry on with our work

as we are not closing school. My office will also function as normal,” the principal wrote.

Brar appealed to parents to remain calm and follow all the security procedures, while expressing confidence that the school would soon return to its normal routine.

On Saturday evening, a man in his early 20s threw a hand-written letter in Hindi, with a smattering of Urdu, near the school’s security guards and sped away. The letter was signed by a little-known commander of the IM, Laqwi, and it threatened “to avenge what happened to the Muslims of Kashmir, Gujarat and Muzaffarnagar” with a series of blasts in Dehradun between March 30 and April 8.

India committed to non-proliferation: PM Manmohan

new delhi, APril 2 (iAnS): India remains committed to non-proliferation and there should be a global convention on “no first use” of nuclear weapons, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Wednesday.

“If all nuclear weapons states recognise and are prepared to declare it, we can quickly move to the establishment of a global no-firstuse norm. In many ways, this can open the way to gradual reduction and finally elimination through a Nuclear Weapons Convention,” the prime minister said at a conference “A Nuclear Free World: From Conception to Reality” at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) here.

He said India was committed to nuclear nonproliferation. “As a responsible nuclear weapons

state that remains committed to non-proliferation, India supports the idea of a nuclear weapon free world,” Manmohan Singh said.

“While strengthening nuclear security, India also maintains its objective of promoting safe and secure expansion of civil nuclear energy... Nuclear safety is something on which we can afford no compromise,” he said. The prime minister said the only function of nuclear weapons was to deter a nuclear attack.

“More and more voices are speaking out today that the sole function of nuclear weapons, while they exist, should be to deter nuclear attack,” Manmohan Singh said. The prime minister also said India has taken several initiatives towards disarmament and there is no paradox that a nuclear armed country like India is advo-

cating for disarmament.

“In the 1950s, we called for a ban on nuclear testing. In 1982, then prime minister Indira Gandhi called for a nuclear freeze and an international convention prohibiting the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons. “In 1988, then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi presented an action plan for ushering in a nuclear-weaponfree and non-violent world-order,” he said.

“Even today, there is no paradox in a nuclear weapon state like India being a strong advocate of a nuclear weapon-free world,” he added. The prime minister said India also maintains its objective of promoting safe and secure expansion of civil nuclear energy and other developmental benefits that nuclear science and technology.

new delhi, APril 2 (iAnS): AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal Wednesday vowed to defeat BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi in Varanasi and denied speculation that he might join the BJP. Addressing impromptu meetings in east Delhi in support of AAP candidate Rajmohan Gandhi, Kejriwal launched a vicious attack on both the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress.

“Ifmyaimwastoreachparliament,then I would have fought the Lok Sabha election fromasafeseat,”theformerDelhichiefminister thundered from atop an open vehicle.

“I want to defeat Modi. That is why I am fighting election from Varanasi. It is also important to defeat (Congress vice president) Rahul Gandhi. That is why (AAP’s) Kumar Vishwas is contesting in Amethi. “Both Modi and Rahul (Gandhi) need to be defeated... They lead two parties that believe in corruption,” he said.

Kejriwal pointed out that while the BJP had fielded the tainted former chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa in Karnataka, the AAP had put up Rajmohan Gandhi, a grandson

jawans (soldiers) today?” the BJP Prime Ministerial candidate asked at an election rally here.

“The number of farmers committing suicide because of the faulty agriculture policy of the UPA is far more than soldiers killed in war and likewise number of jawans killed by terrorists are more than those dying in the battle ground,” Modi claimed. “While the widow of a beheaded soldier is sitting on dharna, the powers that be in Delhi are busy feeding biryani to the Pakistan President,” he alleged.

of Mahatma Gandhi, in east Delhi.

“This is the difference between the BJP and AAP,” he said. It was the second straight day of campaigning in Delhi by Kejriwal for the Aam Aadmi Party, whose minority government collapsed Feb 14 after just 49 days.

He denied reports in a section of the media that he might end up joining the BJP. “I have never said that, and I will never join any of these parties,” Kejriwal asserted, as the AAP cavalcade wound its way through some of the more thickly populated areas of east Delhi.

Some 800 supporters accompanied him, some on foot and others on motorcycles. Whenever he stopped to make short speeches, hundreds gathered to hear him. Kejriwal recalled the attacks on him in Gujarat and Bhiwani in Haryana, and also how he was pelted with eggs when he went to Varanasi. “It is the BJP and Congress who are responsible for these incidents,” he said. “They want to crush us. But we will never bow to them. We will fight against corruption till our last breath.”

Stating that farmers were suffering both during good as well as bad harvests, Modi slammed the Centre for allegedly selling surplus foodgrains to liquor manufacturers instead of giving it to the poor as advised by the Supreme Court. Modi criticised his rival and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for not allowing progressive farmers from the state to participate in an international farm convention in Gujarat.

“Rivalry is common in politics, but it should not take the shape of enemity,”

he said in an apparent dig at Kumar. Seeking to establish connect with locals, he said in days to come his relations with them would deepen as he was contesting from the neighbouring Varanasi seat.

Disgruntled veteran BJP leader Lal Muni Choubey, who withdrew his candidature as Independent from Buxar seat on a request from Modi shared the dais with him along with candidate Ashwani Kumar Choubey and leader of Opposition in state Assembly Nand Kishore Yadav.

High Court upholds life term for Katara’s killers

new delhi, APril 2 (iAnS): The Delhi High Court Wednesday upheld the life imprisonment awarded to three convicts in Nitish Katara murder and termed the case as of “honour killing”. A division bench of Justice Gita Mittal and Justice J.R. Midha dismissed the appeals of the three against a trial court verdict of May 2008 which awarded them life imprisonment for abducting and killing Nitish Katara in 2002.

The bench posted for April 25 the appeal of Katara’s mother Neelam Katara who sought death sentence to the three convicts - Vikas Yadav, brother of Katara’s friend Bharti, and Vishal Yadav, Bharti’s cousin, and contract killer Sukhdev Pehalwan who are serving life terms in the Tihar Central Jail here. According to the prosecution, Vikas and Vishal killed Katara on the night of Feb 17, 2002, after abducting him from a marriage party in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad, as they were opposed to his friendship with their sister Bharti Yadav.

In the 1,193-page verdict, the high court bench held that Nitish Katara’s murder was a “honour killing” and that this case again brings to the fore a “malaise” which afflicts the Indian society. “What is of special concern is that such divisive forces exist even on the borders of Delhi - the nation’s capital, which is also a cosmopolitan city,” the court observed.

“The case of the prosecution squarely brings the murder of Nitish Katara within the meaning of the expression of honour killing,” it said. “It is in evidence that Bharti’s family was opposed to her association or any kind of alliance with Nitish Katara on the ground that he was not from the same caste and that

he belonged to a service class family.”

“While she was a Yadav, Nitish was a Katara. Bharti came from a well placed business class family with her father also being a member of parliament. Nitish Katara’s father was in government service and they lived in official accommodation.

Nitish Katara was certainly not in the same income bracket of Bharti’s family,” the court observed.

The court also pulled up Yadav brothers for their attempt to delay the case and for mocking at every direction passed by the trial court during the trial of the case. It said that because of their “influence”, it took their sister Bharti Yadav three and half years to enter the witness box.

The bench also said that the Yadavs made every possible effort to avoid appearance of Bharti, a material witness before the trial court, which resulted in substantial delay in trial as well as “pressurised her into withholding material evidence and giving testimony which was prevaricatory and false”. It added: “The time has come that an inference needs to be drawn against the accused persons who deliberately were misleading investigators; suborn witnesses; destroy evidence; win over crucial witnesses; protract the trial so that crucial evidence is lost or forgotten by witnesses.”

Vikas and Bharti are children of former parliamentarian D.P. Yadav. Vishal was convicted in 2008 along with his cousin Vikas for kidnapping and murdering Katara, son of an Indian Administrative Service officer. The Yadavs had sought a re-trial of the case, saying the trial was not conducted in accordance with law.

Amma, Didi, Behenji: India’s female kingmakers

Pondicherry, APril 2 (AFP): The makeup of India’s next government could lie in the hands of a trio of women who command a massive following in their regional heartlands, including a populist former movie star known as “Mother” to supporters. Known more for their charisma than policies, Jayalalithaa Jayaram, Mamata Banerjee and Mayawati are likely to play pivotal roles in coalition negotiations, after India’s marathon general elections, which begin Monday.

Narendra Modi is the frontrunner but his party is not expected to win an outright majority, underlining the growing support for regional parties. The last time any party won a clear majority in Parliament was three decades ago — in 1984 when the Congress party swept the elections held in the aftermath of the assassination of its leader, Indira Gandhi.

In particular, analysts say Jayalalithaa, chief minister of Tamil Nadu, could play the

ing on to earn the loyalty of supporters with a series of populist schemes but also drawing accusations of corruption and an autocratic governing style.

Mayawati, Jayalalithaa and Mamta. (File Photo)

role of kingmaker for Modi after telling her supporters it is time for a change in New Delhi. Noticeable by its absence at rallies has been criticism of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), with reports saying Jayalalithaa has ordered her party to refrain from speaking out against India’s likely next prime minister.

“This Congress government — those looters

— must be overthrown!” the 66-year-old — who is usually referred to these days by her fans simply as “Amma” (Mother) — told thousands of cheering supporters at a rally in the city of Pondicherry. Lookalikes of a young Jayalalithaa and the late MG Ramachandran — her on-screen love interest in multiple movies — danced onto the stage as Bollywood-style songs

belted out her praises.

Cinema and politics have long been intertwined in Tamil Nadu and her AIADMK (All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) party was founded by Ramachandran in 1972 after he split from the state’s DMK party.

Jayalalithaa took over after his death and won the first of three terms as chief minister in 1991, go-

Voter freebies An “Amma canteen” scheme she recently set up offers lunches for three rupees (five cents) and she has promised more freebies if people vote for her party, which is slated to win up to 30 seats.

Tamil Nadu has 39 seats and Pondicherry 1. “She’s given us laptops, she’s given us bicycles,” 18-year-old student Janaki told AFP at the rally in Pondicherry, three hours’ drive from the main southern city Chennai.

“She does what she promises, so people want to vote for her.” A police raid found more than 10,000 saris and 750 pairs of shoes at her residence in 1997 and a related court case accusing her of illegally amassing wealth is ongoing.

But ministers reverently

bow down in her presence in Tamil Nadu, a manufacturing hub and one of India’s most prosperous states.

“There’s a big iron curtain about the way she operates.

Nobody knows how she operates, who are her trusted confidantes,” said GC Shekhar, a journalist who has covered the state’s politics for three decades.

If Jayalalithaa is the queen of the south, Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress party rule the roost in West Bengal and its capital Kolkata. Banerjee’s decision to pull her 18 lawmakers out of the national coalition in 2012 over cuts in fuel subsidies left the Congress-led government reeling.

This time round, Trinamool’s share of West Bengal’s 42 seats is expected to be nearer 30. Known as Didi (“Elder Sister”), analysts say it is hard to guess which way Banerjee will jump after results on May 16.

For all her castigation of Congress, she has also

lashed out at the BJP, aware that Bengal’s many Muslim voters have little time for the hardline Hindu nationalist Modi. If Jayalalithaa’s popularity stems from her glamorous past, Banerjee’s allure lies with her common touch.

“Mamata is popular because of her ordinary lifestyle and her ability to interact with the common people in a colloquial language,” Kolkata-based analyst Sabyasachi Basu Ray Chaudhury told AFP.

Dalit Queen While Banerjee is seen as a big sister, Mayawati is known as the “Dalit Queen” or “Behenji” after a colourful career as champion of India’s lower caste dalits. Mayawati, whose Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has 21 seats in the current Lok Sabha, says India will be “ruined” if Modi comes to power.

But she has previously cut a deal with the BJP. It enabled her to be chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state. N

Sathiya Moorthy, a Chennai-based analyst at the Observer Research Foundation, said the three women had much in common.

“Definitely their image, their fighting spirit, their charisma, and their administrative skills to a great extent, have left them in good stead across the board when it comes to voting.” Subhash Agrawal, a Delhi-based analyst, said Modi will have to reach out to them with even the most generous projections putting the BJP several dozen seats short of a majority in the 543-seat Parliament.

“Where are the remaining 40 or 50 seats going to come from?” said Agrawal.

Jayalalithaa has made no secret of her own interest in being prime minister.

Although such a scenario is seen as unlikely, the former actress could still make a decisive intervention on the national stage in return for senior cabinet posts or legislation that will benefit her core.

Thursday

InternatIonal

the Morung express

3 April 2014

Dimapur

9

‘Jet mystery may never be solved’

KUALA LUMPUR , APRiL 2 (AP): A police investigation may never determine the reason why the Malaysia Airlines jetliner disappeared, and search planes scouring the India Ocean for any sign of its wreckage aren’t certain to find anything either, officials said Wednesday.

The assessment by Malaysian and Australian officials underscored the lack of knowledge authorities have about what happened on Flight 370. It also points to a scenario that becomes more likely with every passing day — that the fate of the Boeing 777 and the 239 people on board might remain a mystery forever.

The plane disappeared March 8 on a flight to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur after its transponders, which make the plane visible to commercial radar, were shut off. Military radar picked it up the jet just under an hour later, on the other side of the Malay peninsula. Authorities say until then its “movements were consistent with deliberate action by someone on the plane” but have not ruled out anything, including mechanical error.

Police are investigating the pilots and crew for any evidence suggesting they may have hijacked or sabotaged the plane.

The backgrounds of the passengers, two-thirds of whom were Chinese, have been checked by local and international investigators and nothing suspicious has been found.

“Investigations may go on and on and on. We have to clear every little thing,” Inspector General Khalid Abu Bakar told reporters in Kuala Lumpur. “At the end of the investigations, we may not even know the real cause. We may not even know the reason for this incident.”

Police are also investigating the cargo and the

Full audio transcript of MH370 communications The Associated Press

Relatives of Chinese passengers onboard the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 exit a close door meeting with Malaysian officials at a hotel in Bangi, on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Wednesday, April 2.

A Malaysian police investigation into the pilots of the missing Malaysian jet might turn up nothing, the force’s chief said Wednesday, while the head of the international search effort also acknowledged that an air hunt to spot wreckage on the surface of the southern Indian Ocean was not certain of success. (AP Photo)

food served on the plane to eliminate possible poisoning of passengers and crew, he said.

The search for the plane began over the Gulf of Thailand and south China sea where the plane’s last communications were, and then shifted west to the strait of Malacca where it was last spotted by military radar. experts then analyzed hourly satellite “handshakes” between the plane and a satellite and now believe it crashed somewhere in the southern Indian Ocean.

A search there began just over two weeks ago, and now involves at least nine ships and nine planes.

The current search area is a 221,000-squarekilometer (85,000-squaremile) patch of sea roughly a 2½-hour flight from Perth.

The focus of the search has moved several times as experts try to estimate where the plane is most likely to have landed based on as-

sumptions on its altitude, speed and fuel. Currents in the sea are also being studied to see where any wreckage is most likely to have drifted.

Angus houston, the head of a joint agency coordinating the multinational search effort out of Australia, said no time frame had been set for the search to end, but that a new approach would be needed if nothing showed up.

“Over time, if we don’t find anything on the surface, we’re going to have to think about what we do next, because clearly it’s vitally important for the families, it’s vitally important for the governments involved that we find this airplane,” he told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

With no other data available indicating where the plane went down, spotting wreckage is key to narrowing down the search area and ultimately finding the plane’s flight data

recorders, which will provide a wealth of information about the condition the plane was flying under and possibly the communications or sounds in the cockpit.

The data recorders emit a “ping” that can be detected by special equipment towed by a ship in the immediate vicinity. But the battery-powered recorders stop transmitting the “pings” about 30 days after a crash. Locating the data recorders and wreckage after that is possible, but it becomes an even more daunting task. houston said that only once wreckage from the plane was found “we will then be able to narrowly focus the search area so that we can start to exploit the underwater technology devices that will hopefully lead to where the aircraft is on the bottom of the ocean.”

Malaysia has been criticized by the relatives of

some Chinese passengers on board, who accuse them of not giving them enough information or even lying about what it knows about the final movements of the plane. some are staying in hotels in Beijing and Kuala Lumpur, courtesy of Malaysia Airlines.

On Wednesday, authorities organized a closed-door briefing in Malaysia for the families with officials and experts involved in the hunt.

It was relayed by video conferencing technologies to the relatives in Beijing. several relatives interviewed after session said they were still not satisfied.

“The fact is they didn’t give us any convincing information,” said steve Wang, a representative of some of the Chinese families in Beijing. “They said themselves that there are many different possibilities, but they are judging on the basis of just one of them.”

MALAysIAn AuThOrITIes on Tuesday released their full transcript of the audio communications between Flight 370’s cockpit and air traffic controllers before the plane disappeared March 8. The conversation, heavy with aviation shorthand, is in english with the one Indonesian comment meaning, “Good morning.” The conversation, as it was released, between the cockpit and various units of air traffic control, Delivery, Ground, Tower, Approach and radar, the time the audio was recorded, and what was spoken: Cockpit at 12:25:53: Delivery MAs 370 Good Morning Delivery at 12:26:02: MAs 370 standby and Malaysia six is cleared to Frankfurt via AGOsA Alpha Departure six thousand feet squawk two one zero six Delivery at 12:26:19: ... MAs 370 request level Cockpit at 12:26:21: MAs 370 we are ready requesting flight level three five zero to Beijing Delivery at 12:26:39: MAs 370 is cleared to Beijing via PIBOs A Departure six Thousand Feet squawk two one five seven Cockpit at 12:26:45: Beijing PIBOs A six Thousand squawk two one five seven MAs 370 Thank you Delivery at 12:26:53: MAs 370 Welcome over to ground Cockpit at 12:26:55: Good Day Cockpit at 12:27:27: Ground MAs370 Good morning Charlie One requesting push and start Ground at 12:27:34: MAs370 Lumpur Ground Morning Push back and start approved runway 32 right exit via sierra 4 Cockpit at 12:27:40: Push back and start approved 32 right exit via sierra 4 POB 239 Mike romeo Oscar Ground at 12:27:45: Copied Cockpit at 12:32:13: MAs377 request taxi.

Ground at 12:32:26: MAs37..... (garbled) ... standard route. hold short Bravo Ground at 12:32:30: Ground, MAs370. you are unreadable. say again.

Ground at 12:32:38: MAs370 taxi to holding point Alfa 11 runway 32 right via standard route. hold short of Bravo.

Cockpit at 12:32:42: Alfa 11 standard route hold short Bravo MAs370.

Ground at 12:35:53: MAs 370 Tower Ground at 12:36:19: (garbled) ... Tower

Sorry, not much water on moon!

WASHiNGtoN, APRiL 2 (iANS): Overturning a longheld assumption, a team of researchers has discovered that the amount of water present on the moon’s surface may have been overestimated by scientists studying lunar rock samples.

Led by Jeremy Boyce of the university of California, Los Angeles’ department of earth, planetary and space sciences, the study revealed that the unusually hydrogen-rich apatite crystals observed in many lunar rock samples may not have formed within a water-rich environment as was originally expected.

The mineral apatite is the most widely-used method for estimating the amount of water in lunar rocks. “Our new results show that there is not as much water in lunar magma as apatite would have us believe,” Boyce announced.

For decades, scientists believed the moon was almost

entirely devoid of water. however, the discovery of hydrogen-rich apatite within lunar rocks in 2010 seemed to hint at a more watery past. he and his colleagues created a computer model to accurately predict how apatite would have crystallised from cooling bodies of lunar magma early in the moon’s history.

According to Boyce, the high water content within lunar apatite results from a quirk in the crystallisation process rather than a water-rich lunar environment. “When water is present as molten rock cools, apatite can form by incorporating hydrogen atoms into its crystal structure,” he explained. however, hydrogen would be included in the newly-crystallising mineral only if apatite’s preferred building blocks, fluorine and chlorine, have been mostly exhausted. “early-forming apatite is so fluorine-rich that it vacuums all the fluorine out of the magma, followed by

chlorine,” Boyce said.

Apatite that forms later does not see any fluorine or chlorine and becomes hydrogen-rich because it has no choice, he noted. Therefore, when fluorine and chlorine become depleted, a cooling body of magma would shift from forming hydrogenpoor apatite to forming hydrogen-rich apatite.

The majority of lunar samples are, in fact, very dry and missing lighter elements. yet, hydrogen-rich apatite crystals are found in a whole host of lunar samples and have presented a paradox for scientists. “We had 40 years of believing in a dry moon and now we have some evidence that the old dry model of the moon was not perfect,” Boyce added. however, we need to be cautious and look carefully at “each piece of evidence before we decide that rocks on the moon are as wet as those on earth,” the researchers said in a paper published in the journal science.

Devolution of fiscal powers to Scotland hailed

This Monday, March 31, 2014 photo provided by Allegheny Health Network shows an X-ray of a chain saw blade embedded in the neck of a patient, at Allegheny General Hospital, in Pittsburgh. James Valentine, a tree trimmer, was in a tree on Monday afternoon when he was struck in the neck by the saw. Another worker helped him down, and his co-workers left the saw in place to try to limit the bleeding. Valentine had emergency surgery and is recovering. (AP Photo)

Chile cautious as 8.2 earth quake kills 6

SANtiAGo, APRiL 2 (AP): Authorities lifted tsunami warnings for Chile’s long coastline early Wednesday after a magnitude-8.2 earthquake struck the south American nation’s northern coast. six people were crushed to death or suffered fatal heart attacks, a remarkably low toll for such a powerful shift in the earth’s crust.

The extent of damage from Tuesday night’s quake couldn’t yet be fully assessed, President Michelle Bachelet said, but she wasn’t taking any chances. she declared a state of emergency in the region and sent a military plane with 100 anti-riot police to join 300 soldiers deployed to prevent looting and round up escaped prisoners.

Thousands were evacuated from low-lying areas, but most began to return home as the tsunami alerts were lifted along Chile’s long coast. The shaking touched off landslides that blocked roads, knocked out power for thousands, damaged an airport and started fires that destroyed several businesses. About 300 inmates escaped from a women’s prison in the city of Iquique, forcing the clo-

sure of the border with Peru. Officials said some two dozen had been captured early Wednesday.

In Arica, another city close to the quake’s offshore epicenter, hospitals treated minor injuries, and some homes made of adobe were destroyed, authorities said. Mining in Chile, which is the world’s top copper producing nation, was not affected, although world prices for the red metal jumped as the quake raised supply concerns because most of the Chilean mining industry is in the northern regions.

Chile’s navy lifted tsunami warnings for all of Chile long coastline at around 7 a.m. local time (11 a.m.

GMT). The mandatory evacuation orders had remained in effect until nearly dawn for coastal areas north of Antofagasta, a decision backed by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in hawaii, regarding the coastline of Chile as still dangerous.

Bachelet, who just returned to the presidency three weeks ago, spoke well after midnight, five hours after the quake struck and flew to quake-hit regions on Wednesday morning to assess the damage. It

... (garbled) Cockpit (no time given): 1188 MAs370 Thank you Cockpit at 12:36:30: Tower MAs370 Morning Tower at 12:36:38: MAs370 good morning. Lumpur Tower. holding point.. (garbled)..10 32 right Cockpit at 12:36:50: Alfa 10 MAs370 Tower at 12:38:43: 370 line up 32 right Alfa 10.

Cockpit (no time given): Line up 32 right Alfa 10 MAs370.

Tower at 12:40:38: 370 32 right Cleared for take-off. Good night.

Cockpit (no time given): 32 right Cleared for take-off MAs370. Thank you Bye. Cockpit at 12:42:05: Departure Malaysian Three seven Zero Approach at 12:42:10: Malaysian Three seven Zero selamat pagi identified.

Climb flight level one eight zero cancel sID turn right direct to IGArI Cockpit at 12:42:48: Okay level one eight zero direct IGArI Malaysian one err Three seven Zero Approach at 12:42:52: Malaysian Three seven Zero contact Lumpur radar One Three Two six good night Cockpit (no time given): night One Three Two six Malaysian Three seven Zero Cockpit at 12:46:51: Lumpur Control Malaysian Three seven Zero radar at 12:46:51: Malaysian Three seven Zero Lumpur radar Good Morning climb flight level two five zero Cockpit at 12:46:54: Morning level two five zero Malaysian Three seven Zero radar at 12:50:06: Malaysian Three seven Zero climb flight level three five zero Cockpit at 12:50:09: Flight level three five zero Malaysian Three seven Zero Cockpit at 01:01:14: Malaysian Three seven Zero maintaining level three five zero radar at 01:01:19: Malaysian Three seven Zero Cockpit at 01:07:55: Malaysian...Three seven Zero maintaining level three five zero radar at 01:08:00 Malaysian Three seven Zero radar at 01:19:24: Malaysian Three seven Zero contact ho Chi Minh 120 decimal 9 Good night Cockpit at 01:19:29: Good night Malaysian Three seven Zero

was not lost on many Chileans that the last time she presided over a major quake, days before the end of her 2006-10 term, her emergency preparedness office prematurely waved off a tsunami danger. Most of the 500 dead from that magnitude-8.8 tremor survived the shaking, only to be caught in killer waves in a disaster that destroyed 220,000 homes and washed away large parts of many coastal communities.

“The country has done a good job of confronting the emergency. I call on everyone to stay calm and follow the authorities’ instructions,” Bachelet tweeted after Tuesday night’s temblor. she said her interior minister would monitor the tsunami threat throughout the night and coordinate the emergency response. “Classes have been suspended, and we will be able to know the extent of the damage in the light of day,” she added.

The tsunami warning center initially had cancelled tsunami watches for areas other than northern Chile and southern Peru. The only u.s. impact might be higher waves Wednesday for hawaii’s swimmers and surfers, it said. The us Geo-

logical survey initially reported the quake at 8.0, but later upgraded the magnitude of the temblor centered 61 miles (99 kilometers) northwest of Iquique. More than 20 significant aftershocks followed, including one of magnitude 6.2.

Psychiatrist ricardo yevenes said he was with a patient in Arica when the big one hit. “It quickly began to move the entire office, things were falling,” he told local television. “Almost the whole city is in darkness.”

Chile is one of the world’s most earthquake-prone countries because just off the coast, the nazca tectonic plate plunges beneath the south American plate, pushing the towering Andes cordillera to everhigher altitudes.

The latest activity began with a strong magnitude-6.7 quake on March 16 that caused more than 100,000 people to briefly evacuate low-lying areas. hundreds of smaller quakes followed in the weeks since, keeping people on edge as scientists said there was no way to tell if the unusual string of tremors was a harbinger of an impending disaster.

LoNdoN, APRiL 2 (iANS): British secretary of state for scotland Alistair Carmichael has welcomed the transfer of more fiscal powers from London to edinburgh in the coming two years, urging scotland to pursue a path of “devolution” rather than “independence”.

The financial powers to be transferred to scotland’s local legislature in 2015 and 2016 include extended borrowing powers, a new scottish income tax rate, and the power to create new devolved taxes in line with agreement between both governments. Based on the scotland Act 2012, the transfer will allow scotland to gain a higher degree of economic autonomy.

Carmichael Tuesday said the legislation provides “the largest transfer of financial powers to scotland in over 300 years”, Xinhua reported “As part of the united Kingdom, scotland has got the best of both worlds: a strong scottish parliament with financial powers that can make decisions on those things that affect our everyday lives,” he said.

With fewer than 200 days to go before the scottish independence referendum is held sep 18 this year, London and edinburgh have been wrangling to win supporters for their respective agenda over scotland’s future.

Multi-party system didn’t work for China, states Xi

SHANGHAi, APRiL 2 (ReUteRS): China experimented in the past with various political systems, including multi-party democracy, but it did not work, President Xi Jinping said during a visit to europe, warning that copying foreign political or development models could be catastrophic.

China’s constitution enshrines the Communist Party’s long-term “leading” role in government, though it allows the existence of various other political parties under what is calls a “multi-party cooperation system”. But all are subservient to the Communist Party.

Activists who call for pluralism are regularly jailed and criticism of China’s one-party, authoritarian system silenced. “Constitutional monarchy, imperial restoration, parliamentarism, a multi-party system and a presidential system, we considered them, tried them, but none worked,” Xi said.

Because of its unique historical and social conditions, China could not copy a political system or development model from other countries “because it would not fit us and it might even lead to catastrophic consequences”, Xi added.

“The fruit may look the same, but the

taste is quite different,” he said.

A constitution that went into effect about two years before the 1949 Communist takeover allowed for multi-party democracy in China, but its implementation was hampered by deep-rooted enmity between the nationalist Party and the Communist Party. The nationalists ended up fleeing to Taiwan, where they began landmark political reforms in the 1980s and the island now has one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies.

Xi’s ascendancy in a once-in-a-decade generational leadership transition had given many Chinese hope for political reform, mainly due to his folksy style and the legacy of his father, Xi Zhongxun, a former reformist vice-premier. But since he assumed office, the party has detained or jailed dozens of dissidents, including anti-corruption activist Xu Zhiyong and ethnic uighur professor Ilham Tohti. reinforcing the message that there will be no liberalization under Xi, the ruling Communist Party’s influential weekly journal Qiushi (seeking Truth) wrote in its latest issue that there was no such thing as “universal values”, adding that China’s political system should not be underestimated.

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Thursday 3 April 2014

The Morung Express

no goal impossible to achieve: dipika

ChENNAi, ApRiL 2 (TNN): At 22, India's highest ranked female squash player Dipika Pallikal has tasted some incredible success. The Chennai girl who was conferred the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian honour, on Monday, is already dreaming of the Bharat Ratna.

"To win the Bharat Ratna is a dream but obviously there is a lot that must be achieved before I can fulfill it. Awards motivate me to keep doing my best and helps me stay focused despite hardships," Dipika told TOI. The World No. 12 feels there is no goal that cannot be achieved with single-mined dedication.

"It's a rare honour to receive the country's fourth highest civilian award,

and that too at my age. It's a humbling feeling. I'm not stopping here though.

I have ventured into motivational talks to inspire others to take to sport and bring fame to the country," she said.

Dipika, who is engaged to cricketer Dinesh Karthik, has set her goals straight this year - to finish in the podium both at the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games.

Asked what keeps her motivated, she said: "I have drawn inspiration from several people at various stages of my life. My grandparents were a crucial part of my early years, and of course my parents allowed me to pursue my calling, sacrificing a lot of time and money," added Dipika.

Woods has back surgery, will miss the Masters

Tiger Woods. (AP File Photo)

Barca salvage a draw against atletico BARCELONA, ApRiL 2 (Ap): An equalizer from Neymar saw Barcelona salvage a 1-1 draw at home to Atletico Madrid on Tuesday after a stunning opener by Diego Ribas in the first leg of their Champions League quarterfinal.

Atletico's chances were dealt a major blow half an hour in when striker Diego Costa came off injured, while Barcelona had lost defender Gerard Pique to injury before that.

But Diego Ribas, who replaced Costa, stunned the Camp Nou 56 minutes in with a powerful shot from about 25 meters (yards) that grazed the fingertips of goalkeeper Jose Manuel Pinto as it soared into the top corner.

With Lionel Messi kept quiet by Atletico's wellorganized defense, Neymar stepped up to curl the equalizer around goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois in the 71st. Courtois made a number of acrobatic stops after that to preserve the draw, including in the 85th when he tipped Messi's free kick around the post.

"They played a good game and they made it very hard for us to create chances," Barcelona midfielder Xavi Hernandez said. "We have to try and score in the return — this was not a good result for us." Atletico, which leads Barcelona by a single point in the Spanish league, leaves with a valuable away goal before the return on April 9.

For the fourth time this season, neither team emerged victorious but Atletico returns to the Vicente Calderon buoyed by its performance after having lost its top player to a hamstring injury that could sideline him from the second leg. Pique has already been ruled out with a hairline fracture of his right hip.

"This is a team of men, who play with heart and pride, who never give up," Atletico coach Diego Simeone said. "I'm happy because we can compete with them. I'm very happy because we are in this."

While Pique's exit hurt Barcelona's brittle defense, Diego Costa's injury left the visitors without their lead-

AUGUSTA, ApRiL 2 (Ap): Tiger Woods chose surgery to heal his ailing back over a quest for another green jacket, announcing on Tuesday that he will miss the Masters for the first time in his career.

Woods said on his website that he had surgery Monday in Utah for a pinched nerve that had been hurting him for several months, knowing the surgery would keep him from Augusta National next week for the first time since he was a senior in high school. The No. 1 player in the world is a four-time Masters champion.

"After attempting to get ready for the Masters, and failing to make the necessary progress, I decided in consultation with my doctors to have this procedure done, Woods said. "I'd like to express my disappointment to the Augusta National membership, staff,

volunteers and patrons that I will not be at the Masters.

"It's a week that's very special to me," he said. "It also looks like I'll be forced to miss several upcoming tournaments to focus on my rehabilitation and getting healthy."

The Masters gets the highest television ratings of any golf tournament, and Woods commands most of the attention, even though he last won a green jacket in 2005. He won his first Masters in 1997 when he set 20 records, from youngest Masters champion (21) to his 12-shot margin of victory. Woods has been coping with back issues since last summer: a twinge in the final round of the PGA Championship and spasms in the final round of The Barclays that caused him to fall to his knees. Then, they returned with alarming regularity recently in Florida.

Cepelova shocks Serena at Family Circle

coke to soften marketing if unrest hits world cup

ChARLESTON, ApRiL 2 (REUTERS): Top-ranked Serena Williams suffered a shock 6-4 6-4 loss to Slovakia`s world number 78 Jana Cepelova in the second round of the Family Circle Cup on Tuesday.

The world number one and defending champion lost the first five games and never recovered. "Obviously things didn`t go great out there, but she was a great counterpuncher today and hit a lot of balls back," Williams told reporters. "I really knew nothing about her game going into the match, so she played a really good match against me today.

And it just wasn`t my day," added Williams.

The 20-year-old Cepelova had never beaten a top 15 player but held her nerve to pull off the biggest win of her career.

Williams, a 17-time grand slam champion, won the Sony Open on Saturday and had been on a roll coming to Charleston, South Carolina where she was a three-time champion. Her sister Venus also had problems in her opening round match, losing seven consecutive games at one point, but recovered to beat Barbora Zahlavova 6-3 0-6 7-5.

Venus, who won the event in 2004, said she had been under the weather recently. "I`ve actually been pretty sick lately, so it was a little rough out there today," she said. "I just kept fighting till the end."

FILE - In this Thursday, Sept. 12, 2013 file photo, Brazil's former World Cup champions, from left, Zagallo, Marcos, Rivellino, Amarildo who holds the World Cup, and Bebeto pose for a photo below the Christ the Redeemer statue at the launch of the FIFA World Cup Trophy Tour in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. World Cup sponsor Coca-Cola has disclosed contingency plans to soften the celebratory tone of its sponsorship of football's showpiece event in Brazil if unrest returns to the streets. (AP Photo)

LONDON, ApRiL 2 (Ap): Coca-Cola has disclosed contingency plans to adapt its World Cup sponsorship and soften its celebratory tone in Brazil if unrest returns to the streets.

Launching their biggest World Cup marketing campaign, which aims to promote inclusivity, Coke executive vice president Joe Tripodi told The Associated Press the soft drinks giant would react rapidly to any outbreak of protests in an attempt to reflect the mood of the nation.

Demonstrations flashed across the South American country last year as the Confederations

Cup started, with Brazilians angry at the high level of spending on the World Cup compared with public services. The protests outside some matches, including the Brazil-Spain final, turned violent with tear gas floating into stadiums.

"That (World Cup) spotlight can act as an opportunity to tell a story of happiness but it can also be a spotlight to tell a story of grievances and concerns that they (the public) have about the direction of the country," Tripodi, the Coca-Cola chief marketing and commercial officer, said in a telephone interview. "There was tear gas

and a little of that waved into the stadium, nothing major," Tripodi recalled of his Confederations Cup trip. "The Brazilian people are going to rise up and support this World Cup in a big way. Do I think there might be some protests?

There may well be."

A litmus test of Brazil's attitude now to the World Cup could be when the trophy tour, organized

by Coke, reaches its 90th country this month and begins a six-week tour across Brazil. "We hope there is no unrest," Tripodi said from Atlanta. "But we recognize these things happen. You always have to be smart to have all kind of Plan Bs, Plan Cs and Ds to prepare for any contingency. And if certain things happen you might have to change the tonality of your marketing or communications ... to make sure our messaging better reflected the mood in a particular country."

Coke is aware the same social media channels it harnesses to engage with consumers to enhance its market position can quickly be used to create a backlash against corporations or organizations such as FIFA. "The worst thing is you can be complicit by silence," Tripodi said. "The world we live in now is full of massive disruption, frequent chaos and change all the time," he added. "So as a company and as a brand if you are not prepared to respond ... then you aren't going to survive."

Barcelona's Neymar, centre controls the ball in front of Atletico's Koke during a first leg quarterfinal Champions League soccer match between Barcelona and Atletico Madrid at the Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona, Spain, Tuesday April 1. (AP Photo)

Barca, Atletico bosses content despite draw

ing scorer and scrambling for options off the bench with Raul Garcia suspended. Diego Ribas was the lone option.

Striker David Villa had Atletico's best scoring chances in the first half as the former Barcelona forward curled wide a clear opportunity from inside the area five minutes in — before forcing Pinto into a diving stop just before halftime.

Between those efforts, Barcelona dominated possession, with Diego Godin's sliding block keeping Andres Iniesta's effort out before Diego Costa pulled up clutching his right thigh.

Atletico's physical play proved wearing for Barcelona, and pressured Pinto into errant goal kicks like the one that gave Villa his opening opportunity.

Courtois was alert to a Messi header to keep it scoreless at the break, but Atletico regrouped and emerged for the restart to stun the hosts with Diego Ribas' opener.

Neymar and Messi failed to link up on a cross in the 65th, as Atletico's back

four continued to make life difficult for the Spanish champions — until Iniesta spotted Neymar's run and the Brazil striker curled his shot around Courtois.

Barcelona coach Gerardo Martino brought Alexis Sanchez on for Cesc Fabregas and shifted Neymar to the left side. The extra attacking player clearly helped as Iniesta threaded a perfect ball into the area for the Brazil striker to equalize.

The goal lifted the Camp Nou crowd and turned the tables on Atletico. But Courtois settled his team's nerves by making a diving save to Iniesta's long-range shot in the 73rd minute, before then stopping a late effort from Messi.

"It's going to be such a hard game against a great opponent. It's going to be a very passionate game," Simeone said before calling on his players to seize the opportunity should Diego Costa not be available.

"It's up to the team and the players to respond and make up for his (possible) absence."

BARCELONA, ApRiL 2 (AFp): Barcelona manager Gerardo Martino believes his side did everything in their power to break down a dogged Atletico Madrid as they were held 1-1 at the Camp Nou in the first leg of their Champions League quarterfinal on Tuesday.

Diego Ribas had put Atletico in front with a wonder strike 11 minutes into the second-half, but Barcelona responded 19 minutes from time when Neymar swept home Andres Iniesta's sublime through ball.

That goal ensured the sides drew for the fourth time in as many encounters this season, but Martino was happier with his side's display than in their three previous meetings with Atletico. "Apart from the individual performances that we can talk about, the overall display of the team leaves me very calm. Against possibly the best counter-attacking team in Spain, if not Europe, we gave up two chances in the first-half and a goal from 30 metres. "We created three or four good chances ourselves, which is a lot against this Atletico team. I love managing a team that always tries to play in this manner. "When the team has played badly in the past I have said so, but tonight it is fair to say that the team played very well." Both sides suffered injury blows as Barca's Gerard Pique will be sidelined for four weeks due to a hairline fracture in his right hip, whilst Atletico's top scorer Diego Costa looks set to miss the return leg too due to a hamstring injury.

Twenty-three year-old central defender Marc Bartra was forced into action after just 10 minutes by Pique's injury, but Martino has every confidence that the youngster can deputise ably for the experienced Pique in the coming weeks.

"In these situations you need to be able to count on everyone. Unfortunately, these things happen but Bartra played very well. "I was not surprised by his performance, although to be able to come on as he did after just 10 minutes and adjust to the game straight away was very impressive." Atletico Madrid boss Diego Simeone, meanwhile, lauded the effort of his side's players as they desperately held on in the final 20 minutes after Neymar had brought Barca level. "I am very happy. The team worked as a group and showed enormous heart.

I go through the same feelings and emotions as an Atletico fan and I know the fans can be immensely proud of the effort the team put in tonight."

lt neiphrülie linyü open basketball championship Our Correspondent Kohima | April 2

The 1st open basketball championship in memory of Lt. Neiphrülie Linyü got underway here at the Kohima Local Ground under the aegis of Quakers Group, Kohima with the theme “Brotherhood through sports.” Nagaland Contractors & Suppliers Union (NCSU) general secretary John Kath graced the inaugural function as the chief guest and formally inaugurated the championship. Earlier, keynote address was given by Victor Yhome, president KQG

while Tseituo Mere administered oath to the participating teams. Altogether, 18 teams are vying for the coveted championship.

DAY 1 RESULTS Ist Match: Sky Hooks beat Team Jumpers 28-21 2nd Match: Drifters beat Scappers 32-26 3rd Match: Cretan Bulls beat Agility 46-30 4th Match: Kohima Chiefs beat Mortician 30-21 5th Match: Amplified beat St. Joseph’s College 52-26 6th Match: Oracles beat St. Paul School 36-6

‘West Indies aiming for World T20 history’

MiRpUR, ApRiL 2 (Ap): Buoyant captain Darren Sammy says his West Indies is highly motivated to become the first team to retain the World Twenty20 title as it prepares for the first semifinal against Sri Lanka on Thursday.

"That's something no one has done before and we hope we can do it," Sammy said on Wednesday. "It's all about momentum and we feel we have shown that we are a dangerous side."

The Caribbean side began its title defence with arguably the best T20 batsman in Chris Gayle and the format's two best bowlers in legspinner Samuel Badree and offspinner Sunil Narine. Those three have performed, and the team has showed off its depth thanks to big-hitting allrounders Sammy and Dwayne Bravo producing whirlwind knocks to eliminate Australia and Pakistan.

Sammy got 42 off 20 deliveries against Pakistan and 34 off 13 against Australia while Dwayne Bravo had 46 off 26 against Pakistan and

27 off 12 against Australia.

"The team spirit and neversay-die attitude has been our strong point. The makeup of the side is such that it allows our openers Chris Gayle and Dwayne Smith to play freely," Sammy said in reference to the rearguard abilities. But Sammy cautioned it was all about delivering again. "After our loss to India in the first match, everyone thought we had no chance of making the knockouts, but here we are," he said. Badree and Narine

bagged three wickets each against Pakistan but Sri Lanka can be expected to adjust quickly to conditions they are more familiar with.

Group One winner Sri Lanka has reached two World T20 finals, only to lose to England in 2009 and the West Indies in 2012. Sri Lanka has also been the losing finalist at the last two World Cups won by Australia in 2007 and by India in 2011. Sri Lanka coach Paul Farbrace, though, said losing in finals does not go

against Sri Lanka.

"One way of looking at it is that we lose in finals," the Englishman said. "You could also say that the team always does well and goes through to finals." Lasith Malinga remains a feared bowler and can be expected to be backed by Nuwan Kulasekara, while left-arm spinner Rangana Herath is suddenly an important factor after recording the tournament's best figures of 5-3 against New Zealand in their semifinal decider on Monday.

11 release hilarious short film Natasha Sikka to attend NNTM grand finale

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celebrates the launch of their newest fragrance, That Moment, and centres around a faux photo shoot with an eccentric director called Girolle. Wearing a leather waistcoat and a red bandana around his head,

Girolle says: 'I specialise in the photography of perfume. I take the picture and from the picture, you can tell how the perfume smells.'

'What do you you feel when you think of that mo-

' is women empowerment

at its best: AmitAbh bAchchAn southern matinee idols daughter Soundarya Ashwin, as a mark of women empowerment "at its best". Big B launched the

lowing which he took to his blog to sing the praises of Soundarya.

"Women Empowerment! At its best tonight

ment?' the man asks the boys, to which Louis replies: 'love.' He then asks him, 'What does love smell like?' to which he replies: 'sweet,' while stifling giggles. Girolle also seems unable to say Niall Horan‘s name properly, causing confusion when he continually calls his Nail by mistake.

The guys are instructed to convey the fragrance with various facial expressions. Then, the photographer tells each guy individually 'it’s all about you.' The fragrance has top notes of apple, cucumber and tangerine, mid notes of peony and violent and dry notes of pachouli, creamy musk and cedarwood.

Each ornate pink glass bottle is finished with a silver crown, which is designed to add a regal touch and complement the uplifting and refreshing tones of the fragrance, say the boys. The fragrance comes in different forms — an eau de parfum spray, a body lotion, a shower gel and a roller ball for travel. The £21 eau de 1D will be available in Boots from April 2.

1 D ' s d e b u t f ra grance, Our Moment, was launched in August 2013 it broke records to become the fastest-selling fragrance of the year. Its huge success - which saw one bottle fly off the shelves every minute in the run-up to Christmas and reported sales of £72m - has inspired One Direction to launch a second offering.

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aga's Next Top Model season-1 grand finale on April 19 will witness Celebrity Model and leading Actress of ‘Tohni’ movie Natasha Sikka as the guest of honour. Celebrity Stylist Senti Ao will also be a jury member in choosing the Winners of the 1st Season Naga's Next top model.

The winners will receive the cash prizes and gift hampers from the sponsors, and the female model winner will be receiving a beautifully designed ‘Tiara from Bangkok Thailand.’

Delhi Based Designer Prakash Gupta will also be showcasing his couture collection specially designed for the NNTM Finalist and Opang Jamar Metsubo President NNTM and Former Mister International India 2012/ Singer/Entrepreneur will also walk the ramp in Prakash Gupta’s collection.

Miley Cyrus tops dance poll

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op star Miley Cyrus has won the number one spot in the list of the 10 Best Celebrity Dances, compiled by The London Cabaret Club. Cyrus saw off competition from Madonna`s Vogue dance and Jackson`s signature Moonwalk, which came in second and third respectively, reports contactmusic.com.

The poll also featured the Gangnam Style routine by South Korean pop star Psy, Kylie Minogue`s Locomotion, Beyonce`s Single Ladies and the line dance performed by Cyrus` country star father Billy Ray to his hit Achy Breaky Heart.

sequel will be Tom Cruise versus the drones

Soundarya...a film made on the technology of Motion Picture Capture...truly amazing effort and a first for India.

"A proud moment for society where a girl takes on the challenge of a technology for the first time in the country, and makes it happen. A daughter pays tribute to her haloed father, in an affection that transcends all the cynicism that society still throws up.

"A father who entrusts his daughter with confidence and support to undertake this huge enterprise. Unlike some of the twisted norms being still practised in the country," added the thespian, who is a United Nations ambassador for Girl Child.

"Kochadaiiyan" also features Deepika Padukone, Jackie Shroff, R. ollywood actress MadSarath Kumar, Shobana, huri Dixit has been first motion capture pho- Hindi trailer of the forth- as I inaugurate the lat- Aadi Pinisetty, Nasser named the most inspito-realistic 3D animated coming Tamil period dra- est Rajinikanth film di- and Rukmini in imporrational female Bollywood movie directed by the ma here Sunday night, fol- rected by his daughter, tant roles. icon, becoming the first to receive the honour instituted last year. The 46-year-old actress was bestowed the honour at the third annual Bradford Inspirational Women Awards ollywood is rife with rumours that the action master `Akshay (BIWA) in Bradford in the UK. Kumar` has roped in Hollywood diva Megan Fox for his upcomLast year, as the world celing movie which will be a remake of `Shaukeen`. Akshay has ebrated 100 years of Bollywood apparently confirmed signing her and is quite happy with the decision. cinema, a special category was It will certainly be a landmark in the film industry where east announced at BIWA 2013 for will meet west to create magic on-screen. This has indeed left many the public to nominate their tongues wagging as the most Inspirational Female Bol`Transformer` actress has lywood Icon. "Greetings everyan ocean of fan following one. I wanted to reach out and not only in Hollywood but thank the Inspirational Womalso in the Indian film fraen's Foundation for choosing ternity. me as the most inspirational Earlier Nargis Fakhri Female Bollywood Icon of all was to star opposite the times. It's indeed a great hon`Khiladi` star but apparour," Madhuri said in a special ently she walked out of the video message played at the film following date clashevent. es with a Hollywood proj"I've been a staunch adect she has taken up. This vocate of women's empowerdidn`t go down well with ment and I have worked hard Akshay and he was quite throughout my career to admiffed with her. And now, vance the cause.

It is heartenaccording to rumours, the ing to see that gender equalsensuous `Passion Play` ity is really becoming more of a reality. actress has bagged the There is still much more to be done and role.

I'm confident that, by working together, The remake of the 1982 we can empower women worldwide. I film `Shaukeen` will be would personally like to thank Fatima helmed by Rumi Jaffrey Patel, Jane Vincent and the Inspirational and Akshay Kumar will be Women's Foundation for making this seen romancing Megan possible. Thank you," she added.

Fox for the first time onThe unsung female heroes of Bradford screen. were also once again honoured for their Shaukeen was a hit contributions and achievements across comedy of Basu Chatterjee starring Mithun Chakraborty, Ashok Kumar, public and home life at the coveted award Utpal Dutt, A.K. Hangal, Rati Agnihotri. While the `Rowdy Rathore` star ceremony, which continues to go from will play the character of Mithun in the movie, other veteran actors such strength to strength, with a new category as Annu Kapoor, Anupam Kher and Paresh Rawal will be seen in the skin added each year. of the other old men.

This year's new category was Inspiindi cinestar Amitabh Bachchan finds Rajinikanthstarrer "Kochadaiiyan", said to be the country`s

Thursday

Entertainment

The Morung Express

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t's been 28 years since Top Gun first took to the skies, starring Tom Cruise. While promoting his new book, Jerry Bruckheimer: When Lightning Strikes, Four Decades of Filmmaking, the producer revealed that the 1980s classic would be updated for the current world of warfare.

It has been 28 years since Top Gun first took to the skies, and producer Jerry Bruckheimer reveals that a sequel is close to becoming a reality.

The producer told The Huffington Post that a follow-up to the Tom Cruise blockbuster, which was set at the Navy's elite fighter weapon

school in San Diego d u ring the Cold War, will reflect today's changing world of warfare.

The original film's director, Tony Scott, died in 2012; Top Gun 2 was one of three films on his plate before he passed away from an apparent suicide. "The concept is, basically, are the pilots obsolete because of drones. Cruise is going to show them that they're not obsolete. They're here to stay," explained the producer. Fortunately for Tom, he's very busy, so you have to find a slot he can fit into and get a budget that Paramount feels they can make the picture," he added.

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Madhuri dixit named most Rannvijay's wedding to be inspirational female Bollywood icon telecasted to

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rational Woman in Public Services. In addition, two Special Awards were presented on the night by the founders of the Inspirational Woman Foundation - a not for profit organisation established to work with and to support women, be it at home, in the workplace, in the community or in business, of which the Inspirational Women Awards are now a part.

An independent panel of judges comprising Adeeba Malik MBE; Deputy Chief Executive of Bradford-based charity, QED; David Ward MP, Bradford East; and Susan Jones, HR Director, Freeman Grattan Holdings selected the category winners, which were announced on the night.

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ctor and popular VJ Rannvijay Singha is the latest to take the social media route to announce his wedding.

A couple of days ago, he posted on his Facebook and Twitter page, Wanted all of you to know from me, here it is. I'm getting married next month!! (sic) Now, he will be the first Bollywood personality whose wedding to his London based bride, Priyanka Vohra, will be telecast on YouTube. Created by Colosceum Media and One Digital Entertainment, a web-series will be aired on Mondays and Thursdays.

Confirming this, Rajiv Lakshman, Chief Creative Officer, Colosceum Media, said I have known Rannvijay for years. His life has always been 'happening'. He gets mobbed by girls, goes for adventure sports, and leads a rather interesting life in general.

Added Gurpreet Singh, COO, One Digital Entertainment, So we thought why not chronicle his wedding celebrations and the entire planning for the Dday. We are recording and digitalising the build-up to his shaadi including shopping for his trousseau and house hunting.

Mirror has it that the wedding is slated for the third week of April. The roka will be in Dubai, followed by an engagement in London. The grand wedding will take place in Mombasa. Earlier, Rannvijay was in a relationship with VJ Anusha Dandekar. They parted ways in 2009.

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Bayern held by Man United

MANCHESTER, APRIL 2 (AP): Manchester United confounded grim pre-game predictions by drawing 1-1 with Bayern Munich in the first leg of their Champions League quarterfinal on Tuesday, with Bastian Schweinsteiger equalizing for the holders before being sent off.

Floundering in the English Premier League, United has delivered better performances in Europe this season and stunned Bayern by taking the lead against the run of play through Nemanja Vidic's header in the 58th minute.

Bayern had dominated possession but struggled to create a clear-cut chance before Schweinsteiger arrowed a half-volley high into the net in the 67th to give the German side a slight advantage ahead of the second leg in Munich next week. "We score Recording artists Beyonce, center left, and Jay-Z, attend a NBA basketball game between the Brooklyn Nets and Houston away, so it's good," Bayern coach Pep Guardiola said.

Rockets at the Barclays Center, Tuesday, April 1 in New York. (AP Photo) "I'm happy with the result."

Schweinsteiger blotted his performance by picking up a second yellow card in the 90th minute for a NEW YORK, APRIL 2 foul on Wayne Rooney and Manchester United's Nemanja Vidic, center, scores the opening goal during the Champions (AP): The Brooklyn Nets will miss the return match League quarterfinal first leg soccer match between Manchester United and Bayern Munich are so good at home now along with fellow midfield- at Old Trafford Stadium, Manchester, England, Tuesday, April 1. (AP Photo) that even the Houston er Javi Martinez, who will Rockets can't beat them. also be suspended for an ons are languishing in sev- Phil Jones particularly im- chip into the goalkeeper's The Nets clinched a accumulation of bookings. enth place in the Premier pressive — United had 174 arms rather than going for playoff berth by beating the Guardiola warned that League amid a disastrous passes in the game com- a truer strike.

Rockets at home for the first Bayern played the prettalk of United's demise was first year under new man- pared to Bayern's 701 but time in 11 years, getting 32 premature — and the man ager David Moyes, but they actually created the better tier football, as expected, points from Joe Johnson in who turned Barcelona into have an envious European of the chances. Danny Wel- but United goalkeeper a 105-96 victory on Tuesday the best team in the world pedigree and didn't buckle beck will rue the moment David de Gea barely had a night. Shaun Livingston from 2008-12 has proved to under constant pressure he was sent clean through shot to save before or after added 17 points for the Nets, in the 40th, capitalizing on Schweinsteiger's sweetly be a good judge of football from Bayern. who extended their home Defending stoutly — Jerome Boateng's defen- struck effort from Mario over the past few years. winning streak to 14 games, The English champi- with Vidic and right back sive mistake, but fluffed a Mandzukic's nod-down. longest in their NBA history and tops in the league this season. They finished 18-12 overall against the Western Conference.

DIMAPUR, APRIL 2 "We've just been playing (MExN): Nagaland boys and trying to protect home Sepaktakraw team (Regu event) court. They came in here Brooklyn Nets forward Paul Pierce (34) looks to pass against Houston Rockets forward Omri make a record to beat the deand we try to send them on Casspi (18) and forward Chandler Parsons (25) during the first half of their NBA basketball fending champions - Manipur, their way with a loss, and game at the Barclays Center, Tuesday, April 1 in New York. (AP Photo) in straight sets 21-19 21-14, on that's for everybody," Liv- home-court advantage points for Houston, which the free-throw line. Omer the closing day of 17th Junior ingston said. "It just hap- in the first round, quite a lost its second straight fol- Asik had 12 points and a National Sepaktakraw Champens to be we've been play- change for a team that was lowing a five-game winning career-high 23 rebounds pionship at Patiputra Sports ing good basketball against so bad during its 10-21 start streak. Still without Dwight while starting for Howard, Complex, Patna. It was first gold the West." The Nets ended a that Johnson had trouble Howard because of a sore while Jeremy Lin and Chan- medal and the biggest win for 14-game skid against Hous- envisioning where it is right left ankle, the Rockets shot dler Parsons each added 16 the Nagaland Junior team, who ton with their first victory in now. "Honestly, I couldn't just 38 percent from the points. The Nets held the have been participating in the the series since March 13, even see it," he said. "I kept field. "We just missed some NBA's second-highest scor- national event since 2005.

2006. The Nets hadn't de- saying to myself eventually shots, missed some oppor- ing team 11 points below The Nagaland boys team feated the Rockets at home this is going to turn around, tunities," Harden said of its average and improved (team event) won silver, while since March 31, 2003, when things are going to turn for the Rockets, also without to 30-12 overall since Jan. the girls team (double event) they were still playing in us. Eventually it did start- starters Patrick Beverley 1. They haven't lost at Bar- won gold and girls team (regu East Rutherford, N.J. ing the new year. We were a and Terrence Jones. "We let clays Center in more than event) won bronze. The team The Nets also pulled different team, our mindset them get too comfortable two months and make just was lead by Holshe Khrieo within 1½ games of To- was different and the way early in the game. They got a short trip Wednesday to Coach, Zashevoto Pusa Asst. ronto and Chicago for the we played was different." it going and it was tough." visit the Knicks at Madison Coach and Keneileno Nakhro No. 3 seed in the East and The Nagaland team at the National Sepaktakraw Championships in Patna.

James Harden scored 26 Harden was 16 of 16 from Square Garden.

Team manager.

Nets defeat Rockets, clinch playoff spot

Nagaland Sepaktakraw team excels at National C'ship

India claim No. 1 Barcelona banned from spot in T20 rankings signing players for a year

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DUBAI, APRIL 2 (PTI): Riding on their superb unbeaten run in the World Twenty20 Championships so far, the Indian cricket team toppled Sri Lanka to clinch the top spot in the ICC rankings issued on Wednesday. "India has moved ahead of Sri Lanka into the number-one position on the Reliance ICC T20I Team Rankings Table," the ICC said in a statement.

India gained seven ratings points after remaining unbeaten in their group engagements in Bangladesh to finish on 130, bringing them on par with Sri Lanka.

But when ratings were calculated beyond the decimal point, Mahendra Singh Dhoni's side found itself ranked higher.

With both India and Sri Lanka through to the semifinals, both have a chance to either retain or reclaim the number-one position.

In the other change in the table, West Indies and Australia have swapped positions. West Indies are now ranked fifth with a gain of five ratings points and are now on 115. Australia, on the other hand, have moved down a place to sixth with a drop of five ratings points to end on 110.

In all, 13 of 16 teams ranked on the rankings table

have featured in the tournament. The tournament carries a total prize money of $3 million, with the winning side taking home $1.1 million and the runner-up collecting $550,000.

In the individual rankings, Virat Kohli has moved up a rung to be third in the latest list for batsmen, while R Ashwin has zoomed up 16 places to break into the top10 at a career-high sixth.

West Indies' leg-spinner Samuel Badree has moved up a place to replace teammate Sunil Narine as the number-one ranked bowler in the latest Reliance ICC Player Ranking for T20I bowlers.

Badree is currently the third highest wicket-taker in the tournament with 10 scalps from four matches, at an average of nine and an economy rate of 5.62.

Badree's efforts have helped him gain 109 ratings points to finish on 855, 45 ratings points ahead of teammate Narine. Before the start of the tournament, Badree was behind Narine by just one ratings point. England's Alex Hales has moved up a place to second in the rankings for batsmen. Sri Lanka's Kusal Perera and South Africa batsman JP Duminy have made it to the top 10 for the first-time ever.

A view of the Nou Camp, home to Barcelona FC. The club has been slapped with a two year ban from signing any new players, by FIFA, the governing body of world football.

Regularize the situation of all minor players concerned, demands FIFA

BARCELONA, APRIL 2 (AP): Barcelona has been banned by FIFA from signing any players for next season after being found guilty on Wednesday of repeatedly breaching transfer regulations. The heavy sanction, which covers the summer and January transfer windows, followed an investigation into the Spanish champion's signing of players under the age of 18.

FIFA found the signing of 10 un-named players to be in breach of its rules covering the protection of minors. A fine of 450,000 Swiss francs ($509,000)

was also imposed on Barcelona, which was given 90 days "to regularize the situation of all minor players concerned."

FIFA found the Spanish Football Federation also violated the rules covering the registration of minors and issued a fine of 500,000 Swiss francs ($565,500).

FIFA stressed the "interest in protecting the appropriate and healthy development of a minor as a whole must prevail over purely sporting interests." "The disciplinary committee emphasized that the protection of minors in the context of international transfers is an important social and legal issue that concerns all stakeholders in football," FIFA said in a statement. "Above all, the committee highlighted that

while international transfers might, in specific cases, be favorable to a young player's sporting career, they are very likely to be contrary to the best interests of the player as a minor."

The punishment, which prevents Barcelona from signing any players until the summer of 2015, could be frozen if the club appeals.

The club potentially needs to sign a replacement goalkeeper, with Victor Valdes ruled out for seven months this week following knee surgery, and Gerard Pique is in need of an assured partner in central defense. The FIFA case threatens to further damage the image of a Catalan football institution that is owned by its members and prides itself as being "more than a club" as it also grapples from the fallout from last year's signing of the 22-yearold Neymar. Barcelona president Sandro Rosell abruptly quit in January as he fights a lawsuit alleging he misappropriated funds by hiding the real cost of Neymar's signing from Brazilian club Santos. In February, Barcelona paid 13.55 million euros (then $18.6 million) to Spanish tax authorities to cover any potential irregularities over the transfer, while maintaining its innocence of fraud charges.

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