February 17th, 2017

C M Y K

www.morungexpress.com

FriDAY • FebruArY 17 • 2017

DIMAPUR • Vol. XII • Issue 45 • 12 PAGes • 5

T H e

ESTD. 2005

P o W e R

If we do not change our direction, we are likely to end up where we are headed Sasikala loyalist Palaniswami becomes new Tamil Nadu CM PAGE 08

RefleCtions

By Sandemo Ngullie

NEw DElhI, FEBRUARY 16 (IANS): As much as 56 per cent of the merchants still do not accept digital payments because of the risks and cost of handling cash along with a fear of income loss, a new survey has said. “More than half -- 56 per cent -- of the surveyed merchants still do not accept digital payments.

Fear of an income loss can be a key determinant for merchants to adopt digital payment solutions. Reduced time, risks and costs of handling cash is another reason,” a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) - Deloitte India survey said. The study titled was conducted to gain an understanding of changes after demonetisation and focussed on two modes of digital payments -- cards and mobile wallets.

Sixty-seven per cent of the merchants who accept digital payments said that they did so because of customer demand post-demonetisation. “Customer demand and convenience are the primary reason for merchant’s to accept cards and mobile-wallets,” it added.

Corrigendum In the news report titled ‘Deadlock continues in Nagaland’, which appeared in the front page of The Morung Express of February 16, issue, one of the commentators, Deithono Nakhro is not a member State Commission for Protection of Child Rights as mentioned. The error is regretted.

Nagaland Chief Minister, TR Zeliang on Thursday appealed to NTAC to give him two-three more days to step down to ensure smooth transition of power.

In a letter to NTAC Convenor, KT Vilie, Zeliang stated, “In order to ensure smooth transition of office, and in larger interest of the state, I appeal to you to wait for 2-3 more days. Please be re-assured that this appeal is being made not in my personal interest but in the greater interest of Nagaland and my dear fellow citizens.”

“I am seized of the matter regarding the demands for my stepping down as Chief Minister. You will appreciate that all decisions taken so far have been collectively and likewise all future decision will also have to be taken collectively,” Zeliang stated.

This appeal was made, as 38 legislators appended their signatures in support of proposing NPF President and DAN Chairman, Dr Shurhozelie Liezietsu to take over as the next Chief Minister of Nagaland state.

The decision to back Dr Shurhozelie was informed

by Kiyaneilie Peseyie, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs during a press conference in Kohima on

Thursday evening.

Peseyie however informed that TR Zeliang has not resigned yet. He stated that the decision to propose Dr Shurhozelie as the next CM was taken unanimously for the interest of the party and the government.

He also stated that a meeting will be held with the Chief Minister on Friday at 5:30pm once he returns from Delhi.

Others present at the press conference were Tokheho Yepthomi, Minister PHE, Neiba Kronu, Parliamentary Secretary for Planning and Coordination, Evaluation and Taxes and Khekaho Assumi, Parliamentary Secretary, Information and Public Relations.

A consultative meeting comprising of 38 NPF and Independent legislators was held earlier today. The BJP, a partner of the NPF in the DAN government, however did not attend the meeting.

Parliamentary Secretary for IPR, Khekaho Assumi meanwhile informed that Dr Shurhozelie was “unanimously chosen so that there will be no groupings.” He added that the decision was “accepted reluctantly” by the NPF President.

PHE Minister, Tokheho Yepthomi said that the present CM “will pave the way.” While informing that no resolution was taken in

PAGE 12

Governor and CM in Delhi to urge against imposition of PR

A file photo of Nagaland CM, TR Zeliang and NPF President, Dr Shurhozelie Liezietsu.

the meeting held today, he stated that to complete the formalities, a resolution has to be adopted.

Questioned on why the decision was taken after much delay, he replied: “When our people are only demanding for his resignation what can we do? That’s why we waited so long. These are not easy things which can be decided in a day.”

Meanwhile KG Kenye, Rajya Sabha MP informed that the CM and the Governor left for Delhi since they were summoned by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Clarifying that the meeting

among the legislators held today was just consultative meeting, Kenye mentioned that the CM has agreed on the decision taken in order to pave way.

On whether there would be space given to “dissident” legislators, as termed by the NPF in their recent statements, Kiyaneilie Peseyie stated that this would be “up to our CM. It is his prerogative.”

MP Kenye expects smooth transition of power Earlier during the day, Nagaland MP to the Rajya Sabha, KG Kenye had told

DIMAPUR, FEBRUARY 16 (MExN): Nagaland Chief Minister TR Zeliang, along with Nagaland Governor PB Acharya arrived in New Delhi late this evening to appraise the centre about the prevailing condition in the state and to insist with the centre not to impose central rule in Nagaland.

A press note from the CMO informed that the Chief Minister and the Governor are in the national capital to impress upon the central leadership, considering the political developments in the last 24 hours, rather than remaining in the State, “since they are more alarmed with the likelihood of imposition of President’s Rule by the Centre which will not solve the social IANS: “Majority of the NPF legislators have unanimously elected Shurhozelie as their new legislature party leader to break the deadlock between the agitating groups and the government. We have tried our best to persuade the groups but they refused to climb down.”

“Shurhozelie has accepted the offer of the legislators to lead the NPF-led Democratic Alliance of Nagaland (DAN) government to restore normalcy and prevent the imposition of President’s rule in the state,” Kenye said.

unrest that the State is going through right now.”

As a result of the sudden trip, the proposed meeting of the political party leaders scheduled to be held Thursday at 4:00 pm at Raj Bhavan has been cancelled. The meeting had been called by the Governor.

A press statement received from PRO to Governor said the Governor left to meet the Union Home Minister to “help solve the political impasse.”

The Governor claimed that he had time to time briefed the central government authorities about the seriousness of the ongoing situation in the State. He hoped that the present political impasse would be solved amicably at the earliest.

Earlier on Thursday, Governor P.B. Acharya and Zeliang left for New Delhi from Dimapur.

Zeliang is expected to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.

“Had the Governor and the Chief Minister not left Kohima (state capital), Shurhozelie along with the legislators would have driven down to Raj Bhavan to stake claim and form the new government,” Kenye said to IANS. He informed that both the Chief Minister and the Governor are expected to

return to Kohima on Friday to pave way for formation of the new government.

“We are sure that there will be smooth transition of power as the Chief Minister himself wants to ensure peace in the state after weeks of agitation,” he said.

In the 60-member House, the ruling Democratic Alliance of Nagaland coalition government, which comprises of 48 NPF legislators including suspended legislator Imkong Imchen, four Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and eight Independents.

With IANS input

Creation of districts is an intrusion JCC bandh to continue into Naga rights: NSCN (IM) affirms DIMAPUR, FEBRUARY 16 (MExN): The move by the Manipur Government to carve out seven districts “out of Naga territories with colonial design” is an “intrusion” upon the rights of the Nagas, stated NSCN (IM) today.

“Creation of seven new Districts with colonial motive is the root cause of the problem, not the economic blockade launched by the Nagas in protest against the arbitrary creation of the Districts. The crux of the problem is Ibobi government,” maintained the NSCN (IM).

“It is an attempt to annex our land in the guise of new districts,” stated the NSCN (IM) in a press release issued today by its MIP. It reiterated that the group “cannot and will not sit on the fence when

the territories of the Nagas are being grabbed by their neighbors through the instrument of their colonial laws.”

They expressed strong opposition to “any political step of the neighbors that attempts to seize our territories big or small.”

Stating that Nagas are the “aggrieved, not the aggressors,” the NSCN (IM) explained the “reality” of “invasion and occupation of Nagalim” by India and Burma and how problems here cannot be classified as “law and order” or “domestic” problems of the two countries.

The Nagas are “bound to fight back the colossal forces of the aggressor states in defense of their land, right, culture, identity history

KohIMA, FEBRUARY 16 (MExN): The Women Department of the Nagaland Baptist Church Council has requested all the Women Secretaries of Church Associations, Women Fellowships towns, villages, institutions, local churches and Women Prayer groups to initiate a time of prayer on February 18 or 19.

NBCC, Women Secretary, Visasieü Dolie in a press note said that leadership can be given to different groups, colonies, and local churches to pray in the main junctions, roadways or public places. The prayer can be held according to the convenient time of each area or locality depending on what the local situation permits. “Whenever it is permissible, we advise that the prayers be conducted during the morning hours in the presence of the ongoing bandh volunteers,” the Women Secretary added.

Few suggested prayer points are: Pray for safe and sound conduct of the ongoing examination, Pray for God’s truth and justice to prevail in our land, Pray for our leaders that they may be guided

by God’s Spirit to make the right decisions, Pray for the general public and bandh volunteers and the law enforcement personnel so that they can conduct themselves with respect and civility, Pray that there will be no further bloodshed and loss of life in the land and Pray for a peaceful solution to the present crisis without any further delay.

DIMAPUR, FEBRUARY 16 (MExN): The JCC Ao Senden on Thursday said it has taken serious note of the “threat” issued by the NPF Central through a press statement published in local dailies on February 16 wherein it ‘threatened some government servants of “participating” and “funding” the ongoing agitation against the state government’.

In a press statement, the JCC Ao Senden termed the “threat” issued by the NPF party to those bonafide Nagas citizens for helping and joining in this movement as an “enemy of the Nagas.”

“The JCC makes it clear that the battle today is not a political party battle but it is a battle for the rights of every Naga citizen. Therefore, the JCC advises those writers who have written such blasphemous words should think about their own roots and origins first before writing such irresponsible statements,” the press statement read.

The JCC Ao Senden also vowed that if any misfortune happens to any Ao citizens through the threat issued by the NPF, the Aos will not remain silent and will initiate appropriate steps.

The Angami Youth Organisation also

DIMAPUR, FEBRUARY 16 (MExN): The Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) today informed that it would not relax the bandh despite the Chief Minister’s appeal.

“JCC will not allow itself to be tricked once again by such treacherous and coward leader, who has failed to show any iota true leadership character,” it stated in a press note.

The JCC also expressed shock at the threat meted out by the NPF to the government employees and stated

and their political institution,” the political group stated.

Reminding the historical circumstances that led to a political dialogue and political solution, and eventually signing of the Framework Agreement in 2015 with Government of India, the NSCN (IM) reiterated that the Agreement recognizes the “sovereignty and land of the Nagas” and is the “solid foundation on which a new durable relationship between the two entities will be built up.”

“This agreement will guarantee the security of both India and Nagas on the one hand and safeguard the right and future of the Nagas on the other,” it concluded, while re- DIMAPUR, FEBRUARY maining “deeply committed” to a 16 (MExN): The Nagaland political solution.

Tribes Action Committee (NTAC) has suspended its proposed public rally and hunger strike on February 17 in view of the assurance given by the Chief Minister.

The CM had in a letter to the NTAC asked for 2 to termed the NPF’s allegation that some 3 more days for him to step government servants are funding the down in order to ensure agitation as “highly comical and ridicu- smooth transition of office lous.” A press note from the AYO said that and in the larger interest of “no government funds or contribution the state. The NTAC however from any politician have been utilised informed that the bandh on for the movement.” movement of government It further asked the NPF to “differ- vehicles and government ofentiate between government funds and fices remains in force. personal contribution,” adding that In a separate press note, “failure on the part of the persons in the the JCC and the NTAC also NPF Central to participate in the peo- stated that the “Naga people ple’s movement only shows that they are were not adverse to ULB elecanti-Naga and anti-democracy.” tion but we were asking for It added that the “people of Naga- more time to fully understand land know who is responsible for non- the nitty gritty of the Nagapayment of salaries, the PDS scam, the land Municipal Act 2001 and fuel adulteration scam, attempts to to hold elections after formusteal crude oil in Wokha, etc.” The AYO lating an acceptable policy further cautioned the NPF Central of- relevant and beneficial to the fice bearers and its other agencies, that public at large.” “if it continues their personal attack any It said the Government of its members and victimise any AYO betrayed the agreement member(s) or benefactors, the AYO will made on January 30, 2017 seek them out any day and retaliate to and subsequently unleashed protect its members even after a solu- violence on January 31, 2017 tion is found to this social impasse.” leading to the death of inIt meanwhile appreciated all organ- nocent youths and another isations and individuals who have lent youth succumbed to injury support to the “peoples’ movement.” later. This, the JCC and NTAC

NBCC women AYO & JCC Ao Senden take note calls for prayer of NPF “threat” to govt servants

C M Y K

Regal Real fight back to beat Napoli

State-wide bandh in Nagaland continues

Zeliang seeks 2-3 days to step down as CM, 38 legislators back shurhozelie to take over Kohima | February 16

‘56% merchants still do not accept digital payments’

T R u T H

— Chinese Proverb

PAGE 02

Morung Express News

Drop off kids, pick up kids, cattle to feed, house to sweep, clothes to wash, cook or wife kills. Oh maybe we should just relax the bandh for you.

o F

that “every Naga is morally obligated and duty bound to support this people’s movement including NPF party workers if they have any patriot blood left in them…”

It further expressed disappointment in the manner in which the Governor has handled the situation, and said that the “Governor’s neutrality on this matter is doubtful.”

It asked the Governor to “clarify his position to the Naga people whether he is

the actual head of state or an agent of TR Zeliang.”

The JCC meanwhile thanked the Sumi Student Union Dimapur for providing free bus services to the students appearing exams and asked volunteers to allow these buses to ply freely.

It further appreciated the NBCC for their concern of the current imbroglio and taking trouble to come all the way to Dimapur to have prayer and fellowship with JCC and the Volunteers.

NTAC suspends Feb 17 public rally said “has made the Naga people to take a strong stand on preservation of human life which demanded the stepping down of Chief Minister TR Zeliang on moral ground.”

It said that despite the last 15 days of bandh and shut down of government offices the chief minister continues to be stubborn and remains adamant to step down.

The NTAC further lamented that despite several representations, the Governor remains a mute spectator in the current crisis.

It expressed surprise that both the Governor and the Chief Minister have left station together at such a critical juncture instead of taking preventive measures for any untoward adverse situation.

“The Governor, as the Constitutional Head of the state, is expected to use his August office in the interest of the people instead of involving in solving political crisis,” the NTAC said. It further cautioned that in case of any eventuality detrimental to the interest of the people, the JCC and NTAC would hold the Governor and the CM responsible.

Responding to the statement of the NPF press and media bureau, the NTAC

asked the former to “refrain to brickbat the strength and intellect of the mass-based people’s movement in which the whole great lot of the people of Nagaland are partakers irrespective of age, status, profession and tribe.”

“It is irrefutable under the prevailing circumstance that the Media & Press Bureau, NPF has no more technique or weapon left to defend the mainstay of TR Zeliang ... and therefore has to cook up and resort as to blame ‘some few individuals posing as volunteers of JCC and NTAC’ or that ‘government servants are funding the agitation,’” it added.

The NTAC further stated that the “manner of mudslinging the Media & Press Bureau, NPF employees only symbolize disproportionate underdone of intimidation, bereft of sensibility and out of shape for a civilised society.”

Meanwhile, responding to a statement of advocate, Akito Zhimomi, the NTAC said that the advocate is “advised to be sensitive to the values and sentiments of the people instead of questioning the constitution of the NTAC and its activities who are espousing the cause of the people invested on them by the people.”

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wednesdAY 17•02•2017

NAGALAND

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

DSSU to provide free State-wide bandh in Nagaland continues bus service for students Morung Express News Dimapur | February 16

The ongoing indefinite bandh called by JCC/NTAC passed off normally in Dimapur on Thursday. However, unlike other days, the number of volunteers enforcing the bandh and manning the various intersections and points within the city and on NH-29 stretch till Chumukedima thinned down considerably.

Except for occasional passing of army convoys and light vehicles including autorickshaws ferr ying schoolchildren appearing their board exams, the streets wore a deserted look. Diphupar village junction, 7th Mile junction and Chumukedima 2nd Gate point witnessed the maximum number of volunteers including women. The highly charged emotions of the volunteers also seemed to have cooled down with passage of time and series of bandhs.

However, at Diphupar Village junction, a couple of media persons covering the bandh were in for a rude shock as some overzealous women volunteers jeered at the media persons and shouted that they too have to show their ID cards before taking any photograph, despite fully recognizing the official car of the particular media doing the daily round since the start of the bandh.

A situation arose in Dimapur near the Walford

Volunteers burn an effigy during the ongoing indefinite bandh called by JCC/NTAC at PWD Junction, Dimapur on February 16. (Morung Photo)

petrol pump, when a vehicle, with a JCC official sticker, attempted to break past the barricades. Volunteers managed to stop the car and found the driver in an inebriated condition. Amidst rising tension, women volunteers intervened and prevented the public from causing damage to the vehicle.

While the driver was not a JCC official, volunteers expressed frustration that a vehicle with the JCC sticker was allowed to be driven by someone else during the

bandh, and that too some in an inebriated condition.

The ongoing bandh will continue in Dimapur tomorrow as well.

DNYF to continue “inspecting” in Dimapur The Dimapur Naga Youth Front (DNYF) has informed today that the organisation will continue “inspecting” and “take stern action against those who violate the bandh movement.”

The DNYF in a press release alleged that NPF Central has so far shut the

mouths of its legislators and is now trying to suppress the government servants and said, “Since the government is ‘of the people, by the people and for the people, we demand the NPF Central to let the people decide for themselves rather than threatening.” The DNYF “challenge” the NPF Central to show their strength by coming out in the streets during the bandh hours.

It also added that “DNYF consider NPF Central as fake and baseless comedians who are in real just a circus tiger.”

Bandh relaxation in Tsg The ong oing total indefinite handh in Tuensang Town, called by Chang Tribal Council and Tuensang Village Citizen Union in solidarity with the state wide bandh under the aegis of JCC and NTAC has been partially lifted in Tuensang.

However, indefinite bandh on Government vehicles and offices under Government of Nagaland is enforced from February 17.

All educational institution, schools and colleges both private and Government, Administration, Police, Para Military Force, government vehicle on exam duty, Fire & Emergency Service, Medical, Sanitary Vehicle/ Press media are exempted from the purview of the bandh, and all the business activities and movement of Private Vehicles will remain normal as usual.

The decision was taken following the decision of JCC and NTAC, and to maintain uniformity in the manner of protest with the rest of the state.

The Chang Khulei Setshang (CKS) and Tuensang, Village Citizen Union (TVCU) through a press statement informed the people of Tuensang that the bandh will continue till further notice.

Kohima: In Kohima, the bandh will continue as before without any change in the exemptions and the timing.

Dimapur, February 16 (mexN): In an effort to provide all logistic support to students appearing their examinations, the office of Dimapur Sumi Students Union (DSSU) will be providing free bus services at various designated points till the indefinite bandh is lifted.

In a press statement DSSU president Tovika K Chishi and General Secretary Steve Chophy, pointed out that due to the total bandh the student’s community is facing untold hardship and problems to reach their exam centre due to transportation problems.

They also stated that under the prevailing situation it is impossible for the students to have the “state of mind” and appear their exams

peacefully as the students are constantly under fear psychosis upon reaching various check points and road blocks, as such, they appealed the volunteers and all right thinking citizens to let the students pass without causing any psychological harassment.

Further, the Union appealed all schools and institution to inform the students of the bus service provided by the union.

DSSU also called upon all the students irrespective of tribes and communities to avail the bus services at its various designated places and pick-up points.

For further details and information contact President at 9089285588 and General Secretary at 7085613161.

1. Designated Bus Stop • Green Park Junction towards Burma camp junction and city tower • Thilixu Junction towards Half-nagarjan , Dimapur Railway Station, Notun Bosti Junction therafter • Sub-Jail (Tin-Ali) Junction towards Dhobinulla and Nyamo Lotha Road.

• Sub-Jail (Tin-Ali) Junction towards Notun Bosti Junction and City Tower • Lhomthi colony Junction towards Dhobinulla and DC Court 2. All Students, teachers and invigilators are advised to take the busses for exam centres which fall in the particular route.

3. All students, teachers and invigilators are advised to be at the designated place and pick-up points latest by 7.30 am for morning session and 11.30am for the evening session.

4. All students, teachers and invigilators are informed that the transportation arrangements are only for the purpose of dropping the students, teachers and invigilators to the exam centres.

5. All students, teachers and invigilators are to produce admit cards and Identity cards to the DSSU official in-charge.

Bandh passes off peacefully in Mkg • Two men volunteer to ‘fast unto death’ • Marathon mass prayer conducted • More volunteers turn out Morung Express News Mokokchung | February 16 Angami women bandh volunteers at 7th Mile, New DC Office Complex junction, Dimapur on Thursday. (Morung Photo) In Mokokchung, the Ao

Senden leaders have informed that the bandh would continue tomorrow same timing, same conditions. It was also declared that two men have volunteered to ‘fast unto death’ as announced by NTAC/ JCC earlier.

Thursday in Mokokchung town begin with a solemn fervour as believers Women volunteers from various tribes turned out in huge numbers to enforce bandh at from the 21 churches in and around Mokokchung, numChumukedima Gate 2 on Thursday. (Morung Photo) bering about a thousand, assembled at the Mokokchung Town Baptist Church (MTBA) for an hour-long marathon mass prayer.

The congregation was initiated by the pastors of the 21 churches and the prayer service was held from 6:00 to 7:00 am seeking divine guidance. The assembly then moved A combination of Nagas and non-locals enforcing bandh at Airport junction, Dimapur on down to the main town square, Police Point, which Thursday. (Morung Photo)

happens to be just adjacent to the MTBA Church where short speeches by Ao Senden officials were made followed by another mass prayer.

Later, the bandh continued from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm imposed by Ao Senden where several hundred volunteers manned all strategic locations. Apart from various Ao tribal groups and organizations, more than a hundred volunteers from the Eastern Nagaland People’s Union Mokokchung, Sumi Hoho Mokokchung and Lotha Hoho Mokokchung also participated in imposing the bandh in solidarity with the Ao Senden. A number of women from the Lotha community of Mokokchung as well as from Yajang village under Mokokchung district also turned up to volunteer today.

Since Monday last, well wishers have been voluntarily coming forward to of-

Imlibenla Wati offers tea and snacks to the volunteers during the bandh in Mokokchung on Thursday. (Morung Photo)

fer refreshment and lunch to the bandh volunteers.

Today, I. Temsu Jamir provided lunch to all the volunteers while ENPUM and Sangkong Jamir also provided tea for the volunteers.

It also came as a refreshing delight to see the beauty queen Imlibenla Wati amidst the bandh volunteers. She along with some of her aides was seen offering tea and snacks to the

volunteers. When local media persons inquired about her contribution, she expressed her concern about “the current situation in the state” and brushed off any ulterior motive behind her voluntary act adding that she views all those men as her “brothers and fathers who were risking their lives for a cause that would benefit the whole Naga society.”

On query, she admitted that she had previously expressed her interest in contesting the municipal election, but didn’t file nomination papers “listening to the common voice of the people.” She opined that she didn’t expect to lead a people by going against the wishes of those very people.

The bandh passed off peacefully today.

Bandh volunteers comprising of various tribes keep vigil at Padumpukhuri junction, Dima- Road barricades being set up at Airport junction leading towards the airport in Dimapur on Bandh volunteers keeping vigil at Green Park junction, Dimapur on Thursday. (Morung Photo) pur on Thursday. (Morung Photo) Thursday. (Morung Photo)

78 Bn CRPF construct water storage tank for villagers 173 Bn CRPF conduct Civic Action Prog in Dimapur ZubZa, February 16 (mexN): The 78 Bn CRPF at Zubza, Kohima constructed water storage tank for the villagers of Mezo Basa in Kohima district under its Civic Action Programme. The water storage tank with overhead cover and plinth was inaugurated by Sarbjit Singh, DIGP CRPF Kohima on February 15, according to a press release from the Battalion.

Commandant Neeraj Yadav in his speech informed that the village councils have been contacted to ensure proper utilization of funds. Keping in view the difficulties being experienced by the villagers and as requested by them, the water storage tank was constructed and made available to the vil-

lagers, he added.

He also said that 78 Bn Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) is organizing such programme every year and trying to address the grievances and to provide the least basic amenities to the nearby villagers.

In future also, the CRPF will try to get more funds so that requirement of villagers will be met, he further assured. The Commandant expressed gratitude to the villagers of Mezo Basa and its neighboring villages for their extended cooperation and cordial relationship. He also requested the DIGP CRPF Kohima to get more funds released so that more things can be done for local people.

The inauguration programme was attended by

Dimapur, February 16 (mexN): The 173 Bn CRPF, under the aegis of Vikram Sahgal, IGP Manipur and Nagaland and supervision of Sarbjit Singh, DIG (Ops) CRPF, Kohima, conducted various Civic Action Programmes in different locations of Dimapur for the welfare and livelihood of local population.

As part of Civic Action Programme 2016-2017, 173 Bn CRPF under the command of Joseph Keishing, Commandant carried out works to provide pure and safe drinking water and healthy atmosphere in the form of clean buildings to students and held alterna78 Bn CRPF officials with the chief guest and others during the inauguration of water storage tive livelihood training for tank at Mezo Basa village of Kohima. unemployed youths, invillage chairmen of neigh- chairman of Mezo Basa, women organisation and formed a press release from Commandant, 173 Bn CRPF. bouring villages, village members of Mezo Basa youth organisation.

It renovated the school building and Reverse Osmosis (RO) water system for safe drinking water installed in Diphupar Government Middle School (Tangkhul) and constructed a class room at Government Primary School, Kirha, Dimapur.

Unemployed youths of 6th Mile Model Village, Dimapur were trained on rearing honey bee through staff of Nagaland Honey Mission Dimapur at 173 Bn CRPF Headquarters under the skill development programme. The trainees were also given bee keeping/ growing box.

Sarbjit Singh, DIG (Ops) CRPF, Kohima inaugurated the renovated school building and R/O System at Government Middle School

Diphupar (Tangkhul) and the newly constructed class room at Primary School, Kirha, Dimapur.

Addressing the gathering, Singh laid emphasis on the importance of education system. He exhorted on the importance of giving education at the early stage, as the children are going to be the pillar of the nation, the release stated. CRPF all over the country have been trying their best to create awareness and improve the education facilities wherein the society will be directly benefitted, he added.

The press release further said that the 173 Bn CRPF as an icon of CRPF organization is trying its best to live up to its image of helping the poor and needy and uplift of the nation.

Friday 17•02•2017

NORTH-EAST 3

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

Close fight between Congress, BJP in Manipur Over 100 'Mizo Jews' migrate to Israel this week Imphal, February 16 (IaNS): Territorial integrity of the ancient kingdom of Manipur that had merged with India and the recurring economic blockades by tribal groups are the major issues in Manipur where the upcoming assembly polls are witnessing a close battle between the ruling Congress and the opposition BJP. Intriguingly, none of the parties has so far stressed on the important issue of employment generation, despite the state having over 800,000 educated unemployed youths out of its less than 2.8 million population.

With the 60-seat assembly slated to hold twophase polls on March 4 and March 8, campaigning is slowly picking up. The Congress is eyeing a consecutive fourth term in office while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) -- which had only one legislator in the outgoing House -- is throwing a determined challenge to wrest power.

The path ahead looks far from rosy for the Congress due to resignations, the anti-incumbency factor and the warning from an outfit to tribal politicians not to contest on tickets of the Grand Old Party.

Phungzathang Tonsing, the number two in the state cabinet for many years, resigned from the Congress despite being given a ticket.

"Manipur is a small place and people know what the Congress is doing," Tonsing said cryptically, while declining to elaborate.

The Congress got more jolts as Parliamentary Sec-

Manipur CM files nomination papers for assembly polls

Imphal, February 16 (IaNS): Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh on Thursday filed his nomination papers for the upcoming state assembly polls.

He said that the Congress party will return with a "thumping" majority and will form the government for the fourth consecutive term.

"The ruling Congress shall win ab-

solute majority in the non-Naga areas.

There are 10 seats in the constituencies dominated by the Nagas. We are hoping for at least half," Ibobi Singh told the media after filing his nomination papers in Thoubal district.

Naga groups are highly opposed to the Congress party and Ibobi Singh.

Sources said that many of the politicians were asked to resign from the

assembly and contest after joining other parties.

Prominent members include veteran Congress legislator Phunzathang Tonsing, Parliamentary Secretary V. Valte and the lone tribal woman assembly member Nemcha Kipgen.

Manipur will vote in two phases -on March 4 and 8 -- to elect 60 members of the state assembly.

Sharmila files papers from Manipur's Thoubal seat Imphal, February 16 (IaNS): 'Iron Lady' Irom Sharmila on Thursday filed her nomination papers to contest from Thoubal constituency in the Manipur assembly elections.

"I am fighting the Chief Minister. I want to become the Chief Minister to repeal the AFSPA. I will work for economic independence and other welfare measures for the people," said Sharmila, who came in international limelight by continuing her fast-unretary V. Valte, lone tribal woman MLA Nemcha Kipgen and some other prominent lawmakers, who had been ministers for a long time, quit the party and crossed over to the BJP. The Congress decision to nominate a Nepali, G. Tamang, for the tribal-dominated but unreserved Kangpokpi seat also sparked a controversy and the anti-outsider campaign in the form of a demand for the Inner Line Permit system gained momentum.

Finally, bowing to pressure, the Congress withdrew Tamang's ticket and he is now in the fray as an independent.

Nineteen seats of the 60 in the assembly are reserved for tribals.

to-death for 16 years to demand the repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958.

The civil rights activist, a greenhorn in electoral battle, will be pitted against Congress candidate and Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh.

Thursday was the last day for filing the papers. The two-phased elections are slated to be held on March 4 and 8.

The 44-year-old Sharmila ended

Chief Minister Okram Ibobi, who launched his campaign on Sunday, exuded confidence about a Congress victory on the strength of the development work undertaken by the party during its 15 years in power.

But he has so far declined to comment on the burning issues of tribals being asked not to contest on the Congress ticket and the controversy generated over Tamang.

The BJP is banking on a "(Narendra) Modi" wave.

The never-ending economic blockades over even mundane issues like inadequate power supply or thin attendance in offices feature in a big way as candidates try to drum up support.

her indefinite hunger strike in August last year. She launched People's Resurgence and Justice Alliance in October last and said she will fight elections from Thoubal as well as Khurai, from where she hails.

Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh, who also filed his nomination papers on Thursday, wished her luck.

"It is her democratic right to contest elections. My best wishes are with her," he said.

The BJP and some other parties have assured of a "blockade-free Manipur" if voted to power.

The tiny northeastern state has been facing an economic blockade since November 1 last year in protest against the creation of seven new districts.

The United Naga Council, backing the blockade, says these districts had divided the "lands of the Nagas" left by their forefathers.

The Manipur government has countered by saying that no community is the land owner.

N. Biren, a long time Congress minister who is now the BJP spokesperson, said: "The Congress and the United Naga Integration Council had signed

an agreement on August 4, 1972. The Congress had agreed, inter alia, that the Naga demands are not unconstitutional and had accepted them."

Countering, Ibobi Singh has demanded that the Modi government's framework agreement with the NSCNIM be disclosed, amidst fear in many circles that it envisages vivisection of Manipur, bowing to the long-standing NSCN-IM demand for "Naga integration".

The Manipur government's consistent position is that the state had a welldefined territory since 33 AD, with a written chronicle stretching for over 2000 years. The state was merged with India on October 15, 1949.

Some 'Mizo Jews' at Indira Gandhi International Airport few days ago.

Newmai News Network Azawl | February 16

In yet another wave of Jews migration, about 102 ‘lost Jews' from Mizoram have migrated to the promise land- Israel. A group of 'Mizo Jews' who called themselves as Bnei Menashe left for Israel on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday and the entire group arrived in Tel Aviv on Tuesday and Thursday, February 16.

Khazzan, a religious leader of Bnei Menashe in Mizoram Jeremiah Laltlanmawia said the migrated 'ethnic Mizo Jews' would be converted to Judaism when they arrived in Israel after which they will be sent to their respective places and assigned jobs.

The new immigrants are expected to live in the northern Israeli city of Nazareth Illit, which already has a flourishing Bnei Menashe community.

Laltlanmawia said that though they have already followed Judaism in Mizoram they have to do conversion in Israel as they are the lost tribe and does not resemble to the Jews of

Next round of Mizoram-HPC 48-hour shut-down cripples life (D) peace talks deferred in Tripura as tension runs high Newmai News Network Aizawl | February 16

The fourth round of peace talks between the Mizoram government and the Hmar People's Convention-Democratic (HPCD) has been deferred against the earlier schedule which was scheduled to be held in the second week of February, Home department officials said.

The Home department officials said that the next round of talks has to be deferred as Finance department, DP&AR, Law department and other departments have to be consulted in the process of the ongoing negotiation. The exact date for talks could not, however, be decided, but it is likely to take place in the last week of February, officials added.

Meanwhile, Lalthalien, a church leader from Manipur who headed the HPC (D) delegation in the first and the second rounds of parleys told over phone that the state government has agreed in principle to fulfill a five-point charter of demands put forth by HPC(D). He added that HPC(D) leaders are optimistic about the outcome of the parleys.

The church leader also said that a wide range

of agenda especially rehabilitation and election conduct of Sinlung Hills Council are likely to be discussed by both sides of delegations in the next round of talks.

Lalthalien then said that the HPC(D) delegation would be led by HPC(D) working Chairman LT Hmar accompanied by five others in the next round of talks.

On the question of signing Memorandum of Settlement (MoS), he said that it is unlikely to be possible in the next round of talks as many technical issues are to be involved and discussed.

Lalthalien then said that the Mizoram government agreed to set up Sinlung Hills Council as demanded by HPC(D) in its charter of demands. The council shall comprise 12 elected council members and 2 nominated members preferably from minority communities to be headed by Chief Executive Member (CEM). The council shall also has Chairman, Deputy Chairman and four Executive members, Lalthalien said.

The Mizoram government held peace talks with the Hmar outfit since August last year to find amicable solution to the Hmar political problem. The earlier talks were held under cordial atmosphere.

Assam SP gets death threats over probe

GuwahatI, February 16 (IaNS): A senior police officer investigating the multi-crore-rupee cash-for-jobs scam of the Assam Public Service Commission (APSC) has received death threats from unknown persons.

Additional Superintendent of Police of Dibrugarh district Surjit Singh Panesar has received two phone calls in the last few days and SMSs threatening to eliminate him if he does not stop investigation into the scam.

Panesar is the Investigating Officer of the cashfor-jobs scam of the APSC that rocked the state in Oc-

tober last year.

While probing a bribery case in Dibrugarh district, Panesar had arrested a government servant in October last year who had allegedly accepted cash from a dentist assuring her a government job through the APSC. A detailed probe into the allegations of bribery in the APSC has led to arrest of APSC Chairman Rakesh Paul, two other members of the Commission and several other officials of the Commission.

"Panesar has filed an FIR in Dibrugarh police station alleging that he received calls from a mobile

phone and SMSs asking him to stop the investigation and threatening to kill him. A case has been registered and we are probing the matter," said a senior official of the Dibrugarh police station.

The official said that the SIM card of the phone number used to threaten Panesar seems to have been issued in Meghalaya.

The first call came on February 10 -- the day when Panesar summoned a former minister of the erstwhile Congress government in Assam for his alleged involvement in the cash-for-jobs scam of the APSC.

Foreign nationals defy visa rules in NE

aGartala, February 16 (IaNS): A large number of foreigners are being black-listed from visiting northeastern states by the Union Home Ministry for violation of visa rules, a top official said here on Thursday.

A top central intelligence official told IANS on condition of anonymity that some foreign nationals become involved in local law and order and negative issues, including spreading of religious messages and thoughts.

Foreigners visiting Sik-

kim, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland require Protected Area Permits and Restricted Area Permits.

In Arunachal Pradesh, a foreigner cannot exceed stay for more than 30 days.

"Around 30 black-listed nationals of the US, Nigeria and Bangladesh were disallowed from entering Tripura during the past one year by the immigration authorities," the official added.

"On Wednesday, a black-listed Muslim cleric from Bangladesh tried to enter Tripura but the im-

migration authorities at the India-Bangladesh check post at Akhaura did not allow him," the official said.

According to the official, the 64-year-old cleric, carrying Indian visa with one year validity, had visited Tripura last month too.

Around 90,000 foreign tourists visited seven northeastern states, excluding Sikkim, last year, while 80,200 foreign tourists visited the region in 2015 and in 2014, around 68,400 foreign travellers visited the mountainous region.

aGartala, February 16 (IaNS): Normal life was severely affected in the tension-ridden Gandacherra sub-division in Tripura on Thursday, as a local tribal party called for a48-hour shut-down to protest "police high-handedness". The state police said that the government, semigovernment as well as private offices, educational institutions, banks, shops and business establishments were closed. According to the police, heavy tension has been prevailing in the tribal dominated areas.

The Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT), a tribal-based party, called the 48-hour strike in Gandacherra in tribalsdominated Dhalai district to protest the alleged police "high-handedness" on February 8 when three trib-

al parties had called a 12hour bandh to oppose the Centre's citizenship bill.

Around 50 persons were injured, four of them critically, when bandh (shut-down) supporters and ruling Left Front members clashed in six places in Tripura on February 8.

On Wednesday night, five Tripura State Rifles (TSR) troopers were injured when several hundred IPFT members attacked them.

"Huge contingents of TSR, BSF (Border Security Force), CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) and Assam Rifles led by Inspector General of Police (law and order) K.V. Sreejesh are overseeing the situation in and around the Gandacherra sub-division," a police official said here.

Three opposition tribal parties -- Indigenous Na-

tional Party of Triupura (INPT), IPFT and the National Conference of Tripura (NCT) -- jointly called a dawn-to-dusk general strike in Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) areas on February 8 to oppose the central government's Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016.

The bill, introduced in the Lok Sabha last year and now under the scrutiny of a parliamentary committee, seeks to enable Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians, who have fled to India from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh without valid travel documents or those whose valid documents have expired in recent years, to acquire Indian citizenship through the process of naturalisation.

the United States.

"Conversion in Israel itself is crucial and the Jewish custom has to be learnt first," he added.

He said that the migrated 'Mizo Jews' would be accorded citizenship on their arrival in Israel and would be given voting rights.

Despite their wishes, conversion could not be done in Mizoram due to some inconveniences, he said.

Though the 'Mizo Jews' call themselves the lost tribes of Israel, they cannot become citizens of that country unless and until they are formally converted by a 'mikveh' or Jewish spiritual bath (a kind of baptism).

The Bnei Menashe community who migrated this time moved in families including infants and three senior citizens aged about 80, while there are few who left Mizoram without their families. They are mostly from Sialhawk, Kolasib, Bairabi, Lunglei and Aizawl.

The immigration is being facilitated by Shavei Israel, an Israeli-based Jewish organization that

reaches out to descendants of Jews around the world.

The Bnei Menashe claimed that they descended from Menashe, the lost tribe of Israel who departed the 'promised land' in the eight century BC. The present batch of 'Mizo Jews' migrated to Israel belong to a group of 7500 people from Mizoram and Manipur whose immigration programe has been undertaken by the Interior Ministry of Israel government, Jeremiah said, adding, the time for next immigration of new batch is yet to be known.

Among the Zo descendants in Manipur and Mizoram there are some group who identified themselves as the lost tribe of Israel, and that, the Zo descendants in Manipur started following Judaism in 1974 two years before Judaism was introduced in Mizoram.

The first batch of 'Mizo Jews' comprising six youths (boys and girls) from Mizoram migrated to Israel in 1989 and more than 3,000 ethnic Mizos have migrated till date from the northeast.

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THE MORUNG EXPRESS

Fake Rs 2000 notes entering India through Bangladesh New Delhi/MalDa, February 16 (hiNDustaN tiMes): Fake Rs 2,000 bills are entering India through Bangladesh, three months after the newly minted banknote was introduced as an upshot of the Narendra Modi government’s demonetisation drive to fight corruption, counterfeiting and terrorist funding.

But multiple confiscations of counterfeit Rs 2,000 notes over the past three weeks have undermined the shock recall of 500- and 1,000-rupee notes last November, wiping out 86% of the money in circulation in a cash-driven economy.

The demonetisation exercise has been called a watershed for a country saddled with counterfeiters pushing millions of fake notes into the Indian economy from neighbouring Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. Terrorists and governments hostile to India use the bogus cash to

weaken the economy.

The latest attempts to restart the vicious cycle after the notes ban have set off alarm bells in the security establishment.

On the night of February 14, security forces foiled an attempt to smuggle a consignment across the fence on Indo-Bangladesh border. This was the latest and biggest in a series of attempts over a short span of time.

A Border Security Force (BSF) patrol seized a bundle of 100 counterfeit notes that was thrown across the fence for “miscreants” waiting on the Indian side.

The criminals escaped, leaving behind the bundle.

“Our enemies across the border will not stop bothering us. They will continue to poison our economy … pushing fake notes is the best method to do it. It was just a matter of time that they copied the new notes,” said Arun Chaudhary, former Intel-

ligence Bureau special director and former chief of Sashastra Seema Bal that guards the Indo-Nepal border.

The Bangladesh border is a preferred route because it is porous.

Of the 17 security features on the Rs 2,000 note printed by the Reserve Bank of India, 10 were found on the seized notes, according to intelligence sources.

More details would be known once they get the forensic report in a couple of weeks.

Preliminary inquiries by the BSF revealed that counterfeiters have managed to copy six front features —including the seethrough register where the numeral 2,000 can be seen when held against light; the Devanagari inscription, portrait of Mahatma Gandhi, and the Ashoka pillar emblem.

They have copied four back features, including

the year of manufacturing (2016), the Swachh Bharat logo, the value written in 16 languages, and the motif of Mangalyaan.

“The counterfeit notes appear to of a better quality,” said RPS Jaswal, the BSF deputy inspector general of the South Bengal Frontier.

The opposition Congress called the confiscations a vindication of its argument that the notes ban would not stop counterfeiting.

“It has been established now that Prime Minister Narendra Modi fooled the people of India. The recovery of fake notes has exposed India’s economic instability. Terror outfits, apart from economic offenders, are making hay and thanking the Modi government for this unprecedented bonanza,” said party spokesman Ajoy Kumar.

The first sample of fake Rs 2,000 notes was seized on January 23 by West Ben-

gal police from a Malda village. On February 4, state police found two more notes in the area, and a stash of 40 four days later from a smuggler in Murshidabad.

On February 13, Umar Faruq, another Malda native, was picked up with three such samples. Based on his information, BSF foiled Wednesday’s attempt.

What sets these notes apart was that these look more like the original than those seized during raids in Bengaluru, Gujarat and Haryana, which were essentially colour copies printed on laser or inkjet printers.

“There is human as well as technical intelligence that samples of fake notes were printed in Pakistan and pushed into India to see whether they can gain currency without raising suspicion,” a National Investigation Agency official said.

SBI, five associate banks to be merged to create global sized bank New Delhi, February 16 (Pti): Seeking to create a global sized bank, the government on Wednesday gave its goahead to the merger plan of the State Bank of India (SBI) and its five associate banks but did not take a decision with regard to the Bharatiya Mahila Bank.

“The cabinet had earlier in-principle cleared the (merger) proposal. It had gone to the boards of various banks which have granted the approvals. The recommendations of the boards were considered today (February 15) and the cabinet cleared the proposal,” finance minister Arun Jaitley said.

The associate banks which will be merged with SBI are: State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur (SBBJ), State Bank of Mysore (SBM), State Bank of Travancore (SBT), State Bank of Patiala (SBP) and State Bank of Hyderabad (SBH).

“With this merger, the SBI, with all these five subsidiaries merging in it, will also become a very large bank, not merely from a domestic point of view but actually a global player in its very size,” the minister said after the Union cabinet meeting.

It will, he added, “certainly lead to far greater efficiency. It will lead to synergy of operations within these banks... it will cut down the cost of operations. The cost of funds itself will come down”.

With the merger of all the five associates, SBI is expected to become a globalsized bank with an asset base of Rs 37 trillion (Rs 37 lakh crore) or over $555 billion, 22,500 branches and 58,000 ATMs. It will have over 50 crore customers.

State Bank of India has about 16,500

branches, including 191 foreign offices spread across 36 countries.

SBI first merged State Bank of Saurashtra with itself in 2008. Two years later, State Bank of Indore was merged with it.

On the proposal to merge the Bharatiya Mahila Bank with the SBI, Jaitley said, “It is under consideration as of now. We have not taken any decision related with that today.”

About the specific date on which the merger of five associate banks with the SBI would become effective, the he said, “We will inform you about the specified date when the merger will come to the effect.”

Jaitley also said that merger will not be detrimental to the services of any employee, “It will be a smooth arrangement.”

The board of SBI earlier approved the merge plan under which SBBJ shareholders will get 28 shares of SBI (Rs 1 each) for every 10 shares (Rs 10 each) held. Similarly, SBM and SBT shareholders will get 22 shares of SBI for every 10 shares.

SBI had approved separate schemes of acquisition of State Bank of Patiala and State Bank of Hyderabad. There will not be any share swap or cash outgo as they are wholly-owned by the SBI. SBI stock closed 0.68 per cent down at Rs 268.65 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

Of the three listed subsidiary banks among the five: State Bank of Mysore stock closed 0.47% down at Rs 561.65 apiece; State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur down 0.51% at Rs 718 and the share of State Bank of Travancore fell 0.91% down at Rs 559.95.

Self financed colleges in India form body Seven-year-old girl applied for a job at Google

dr. Anshu Kataria, President, All India Federation of self Financing technical Institutions addressing the meeting of various state level Associations.

guwahati, February 16 (MexN): To highlight the issues and problems being faced by self financed colleges of the Country, a new association of various State level associations of the country i.e. All India Federation of Self Financing Technical Institutions (AIFSFTI) has been formed.

A consortium of more than 15-20 State level associations of self financing Professional Colleges of Tamil Nadu under the leadership of RS Munirathinam recently convened a meeting of all

self financing professional colleges associations at Constitution Club, New Delhi.

Dr. Anshu Kataria President, Punjab Unaided Colleges Association (PUCA) has been elected as the President of AIFSFTI while RS Munirathinam (Tamil Nadu) has been elected as the Chief Patron unanimously in the meeting.

Srini Bhupalam (Telangana), Panduranga Shetty (Karnataka), Pradeep Kumar(Haryana), P Selvaraj (Tamil Nadu), Lalit Aggarwal (Delhi) as the Vice Pres-

idents; KVK Rao (Andhra Pradesh & Telegana) as the General Secretary; CA Manmohan Garg (Chandigarh) as the Treasurer and other office bearers along with executive committee were nominated.

A press release stated that various other office bearers were also elected including T D Esawara Moorthy (Tamil Nadu) and K G Madhu (Kerala) as Secretary; Prof A Kanakaraj (Tamil Nadu), Rajeev Chand (Maharastra), Khaja Shatfuddin (Andhra Pradesh) as the Joint Secretary. In Executive Committee Members- Shridhar Singh (Rajastan), V K Verma (Madhya Pradesh), RM Kishore (Tamil Nadu), Leo Sai Prasad (Tamil Nadu), Vijay Sundram (Tamil Nadu), Sridhar (Andhra Pradesh), Er. BS Yadav, JN Chouksey, R. Natarajan (Tamil Nadu) as Legal Advisor, Dr K Manivannan (Tamil Nadu) as coordinator were also appointed.

leisure

CROSSWORD # 3860

SUDOKU

Answer Number # 3854

loNDoN, February 16 (ageNcies): A 7-year-old UK resident, Chloe Bridgewater wrote an adorable job application letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai without any expectations of a reply.

However, she was in for a pleasant surprise when the CEO himself replied to the girl with words of encouragement and motivation.

Pichai told Chloe to ‘keep working hard and follow her dreams’ and to formally apply to Google when she’s finished with school.

Bridgewater’s letter was handwritten directed to ‘the Google Boss’, upon the encouragement of her father.

Business Insider reports that Chloe became interested in Google recently when she

Furthermore, she learned that the office had bean bag chairs, go karts, and slides, things that no doubt added to her intrigue.

As her interest in Google peaked, she told her dad she wanted to work at Google someday, and her dad egged her on to start early.

He told her to write a job application, and she did so, in her own carefree way. In her letter, she wrote that she liked computers, robots, and tablets, and was a good student in school. Apart from working at Google, she also wants to work at a chocolate factory and swim at the Olympics. She added that the only other letter she wrote was to Father Christmas. You can read the full letter below.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai responded by sayasked her dad, Andy Bridge- would be ideal as it’s known ing that he hoped that water, of the ideal place to for its ‘world-famous perks she would continue to work. He told her that Google and cutting-edge work.’ work hard and follow her std code: 03862

DiMaPUR ACROSS 1. Openings 5. Does something 9. Gala 13. Again 14. Slumber 16. Forearm bone 17. Not aft 18. Hawaiian veranda 19. An outer surface 20. Widely known 22. Disciplinarians 24. Copied 26. Kidney-related 27. Alley 30. A coarse linen cloth 33. Ordinary people 35. Recess 37. 2,000 pounds 38. Vortex 41. Spy agency 42. Pervert 45. Lodgers 48. One who denies 51. Shoulder board 52. Dim 54. “Your majesty” 55. Grouped 59. Pub game 62. A building for skating 63. Papal court 65. Assign a grade 66. False god 67. Mountain lakes 68. Decorative case 69. Feudal worker 70. Falls behind 71. Require DOWN 1. Spike 2. Dwarf buffalo 3. Imperishability 4. Cleaning device 5. American Sign Language 6. Burrowing marine mollusk 7. Adult male singing voice

Simple Rules - Fill in the grid so that every row, every column, and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9.

Game Number # 3855

This is what CEO Sundar Pichai said in his reply

std code: 03871

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8. Charred 9. Spiral noodles 10. Large N. American deer (plural) 11. Hissy fit 12. Bronzes 15. A keyboard instrument 21. Wet, as morning grass 23. A field of grass 25. Dikes 27. Permits 28. Steer clear of 29. A type of evergreen tree 31. Sprint 32. English county 34. Pen part 36. Where the sun rises 39. Caviar 40. Trips around a course 43. Joint of a finger 44. Pig sound 46. Police action 47. Heartwood 49. Choose by voting 50. Rite 53. Latin name for our planet 55. French cheese 56. Purges 57. Nameless 58. Little dent 60. Not false 61. Slip 64. Donkey

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dreams. “Thank you so much for your letter. I’m glad that you like robots and computers, and hope that you will continue to learn about technology. I think that if you keep working hard and following your dreams, you can accomplish everything that you set your mind to - from working at Google to swimming in the Olympics. I look forward to receiving your job application when you are finished with school. All the best to you and your family,” he wrote.

Andy Bridgewater shared Pichai’s response on LinkedIn, and said that “it’s a much-needed confidence booster for Chloe, who was knocked down by a car years ago.” He said that he would encourage Chloe to develop her skills and focus on her studies to fulfill her goal of working at Google in the future.

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65.48 81.92 8.17 50.16 45.99 50.04 57.27 69.33 1.81 0.0552 17.25 9.22

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friday 17•02•2017

NAGALAND

NPSc aspirants express concern Morung Express News Dimapur | February 16

With the ongoing indefinite bandh in Nagaland putting the normal in a limbo, students as well aspirants for exams conducted by Nagaland Public Service Commission have expressed concerns over the issue.

The Unemployed Civil Engineers' Association of Nagaland (UCEAN) in a press note today appealed the NPSC to provide information through the local dailies “on when and how to avail the admit cards, exam routines at the earliest.”

The NPSC’s Common Technical Examination (CTE) is scheduled to be

held on February 25 but due to the internet ban as a result of the ongoing crisis in the state, the candidates spread all over the State are unable to access all means of social media communication, it added.

In this context, the Association of Civil, Electrical, Mechanical Engineering and Forestry requested the Secretary, NPSC to update on the steps taken for the timely and smooth conduct of the forthcoming exam.

Meanwhile, aspirants residing in far-flung areas like Tuensang and Mon District have also requested organisations imposing the current bandh to give relaxation to public transport so as to enable them to

15 AR conducts free medical camp in Noklak

Dimapur, February 16 (mexN): A total of 592 patients comprising of 165 males, 255 females and 172 children were treated at a free medical camp organised by 15 Assam Rifles under the aegis of HQ (IGAR (North) in Noklak village, Tuensang District on February 15 and 16.

The medical camp, conducted with an aim to reach out to needy and medically deprived sections of society in the remote area, also distributed free medicines besides treatments, an AR press note informed.

In addition to medical aids, the locals were educated on the need for important vaccinations, health & hygiene and preventive mechanism to guard against illness, it added.

appear in upcoming CTE exam.

We need to reach at least one week ahead to mentality prepare for the exam. Most of us have chosen Dimapur and Kohima as our examination centre but we are felling apprehensive if the bandh continues, an aspirant from Mon Town said.

He said there are at least 20 candidates he knows from the district who have chosen Dimapur and Kohima as the exam centres.

While we support the bandh, we appealed for either relaxing the same of public transport to enable us to travel to our respective centres or the NPSC The Peren Zeliang celebrated Hega Festival from February 10 to 14. (Left): The bride who is engaged is seen carrying a wooden carved through to postpone the exam, he the village with her female clan, signifying her purity, beauty and fruitfulness of her last youth age. (Right): People taking part on traditional dance added.

(Koksui) along with the bride and groom. (Photo Courtesy/Heutinggumbe)

cNTc rebuffs allegations on Jcc Dimapur, February 16 (mexN): The Central Nagaland Tribes Council has “completely derided” allegations made against the JCC Convener Subu Jamir.

A press note from the CNTC Media Cell said that the January 30 Agreement brokered by Nagaland Baptist Church Council was signed only in order to ensure a proper and an “indepth study of the ULB

election matters from the grassroots level in relation to the 33%women reservation, Nagaland Municipal Act etc.”

The January 30 Agreement between the State Government and Joint Coordination Committee signed in the presence of the NBCC “solemnly pledged to postpone the ULB elections for two months as to educate and enlighten the

masses.”

“The JCC was endorsed by the CNTC which was augmented by two brother tribes, the Angamis and the Chakhesangs which was further joined by the ENPO under the umbrella of the Naga Council Dimapur,” it added.

In this connection, the CNTC contended that the Convener of the JCC “is not representing just some agitating groups with political

agenda as alleged but collective voice of all the tribal hohos representing as voice of the Nagas.”

“Any misgivings or misconceptions about this issue as political are totally unfounded and baseless.”

The CNTC also appealed to everyone not to spread any false propaganda so as to mislead the people of Nagaland in these critical times.

AYO condoles Dimapur, February 16 (mexN): The Angami Youth Organization has expressed sadness over the untimely demise of Vihoshe Hesso, (Rtd Engineer PWD) and the father of Joseph Hesso, Sr Superintendent of Police Kohima, on February 15.

“Lt. Vihoshe Hesso was a man of

strong conviction, dedication and a person who always strive to better the society in his walks of life, a condolence note from AYO President and Colleagues stated.

His inherent qualities and characters of a nurturing father are today being exhibited in the personalities of his son, it said adding

that the Sumi community and the Nagas in general have lost an able leader.

“The AYO conveys its deepest condolences to the bereaved family and all near and dear ones and prays that the Almighty gives them comfort and solace in their hour of grieve.

May his soul rest in peace."

Sri Sri Ram Thakur Sevashram annual Utsav postponed Dimapur, February 16 (mexN): The Sri Sri Ram Thakur Sevashram annual Utsav which was scheduled for February 21 to 23 has been deferred to March 2017. A press release from Mintu Saha, General Secretary, Sri Sri Ram Thakur Sevashram informed all the devotees that actual dates will be conveyed soon.

Assam Rifles assists Club in New Jalukie Club Dimapur, February 16 (mexN): The 36 Assam Rifles under the aegis of IGAR (N) provided assistance to New Jalukie Youth Club for conducting its 11th Inter Block Footbayll Tournament in Jalukie from 10-13 February.

The football tournament was a success as it brought together people of all age groups who cheered aloud for the players, an AR press note said.

Civil administration, Youth club and locals of Jalukie appreciated the AR’s gesture, it added.

Public SPace The way of creation is the way of solution

G

od is self-existent and eternal life and has infinite wisdom and power. By His eternal life, wisdom and power, He created the universe. So the basis of His creation is His life, wisdom and power and on the basis of the creations alone problems can be resolved.

Man is a creature and man cannot do anything without the Creator. The high intellect of man makes man self-sufficient and man has the tendency to do anything against the will of God and in contrary to the way of God. But it only creates confusion and turmoil. Waging war, conflict, violence, imposing bandh, blockade, launching agitation, organizing divisions, factions are contrary to the way of the Creator because all these are for selfish purposes.

Man is a mere creature and the deeper a man knows himself, more humble he will become. The Creator alone can create, save and heal. So do anything on the basis of “KNOW GOD, BELIEVE IN HIM, FEAR HIM AND OBEY HIM” which is the law of relationship with God. God will do anything according to His will by His life, wisdom and power by which alone the universe is created and existing and by which alone He will heal and save.

It is the only way of constructing or building up, healing and salvation. It is the only way of peace and consistent life with God and with fellow men and women.

Basing on the way of God, abandon all nasty practices of violence, imposing bandh etc.

Rev. L. Suohie Mhasi

an appeal to lift internet ban Dear Mr. CM,

W

e’re living in an era where internet keep us connected with people from across the globe. Likewise, Nagaland is a State where majority of internet users feed on mobile data owing to geographical remoteness as compared with mainland cities. The recent move that extensively banned mobile data has negatively affected the entire populace particularly students and individuals who are preparing for exams. Such hasty illogical measure taken under an excuse of controlling mob has pushed the situation from bad to worse. People felt disconnected at home and thus forced themselves into streets or crowded places which aggravated the violence.

As a result, internet ban holds no effect in lessening violent behavior. Of late, we’ve witnessed incidents like burning down of government offices,

burning of vehicles, shootings, vandalizing properties and frequent protests across the streets of Nagaland amid ongoing cellular data ban. These are indisputable signs that people can overpower the power of internet ban imposed by government. In broader sense, such desperate attempt to cut off normal communication was clear symptom of juvenile behavior.

It is too early to deny the fact on the situation that remains tense. However, there are people willing to console others in distress via social blogs. Oppositely, the freedom of communication was hijacked whilst right to access information was completely confiscated. That was how the situation took a U-turn from out of the pan into the fire. In some instance, competent government authority has the right to block peril websites that potentially trigger violent but not the entire service on which optimistic users feed on for positive purpose.

Straight to the point, there are vital online activities which we cannot escape from. While the candidates of NPSC combined technical exam counter difficulties in online procedures, the students of CBSE and NBSE deprived from accessing study materials and conducting online test. Besides, a group of talented Nagas currently participating in National event (Rising stars) were deprived of online votes.

There are also other activities which have been adversely hit by data ban.

Has the government consulted TRAI prior to ban and thereof, notify consumers as to why data ban came into effect and under what Act? When it comes to price value, 3G/4G datas are considered expensive. In this case, who will compensate customers if unused prepaid data expires?

I fervently appeal the government to lift prolong internet ban without delay.

Vezo Luruo, Kohima

The infamous ULB election’17 -a reflection

T

o be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of competition and cruelty but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives-Howard Zinn.

Well, in connection to the infamous ULB Election, 2017 much have been said, written, debated, suggested and also speculated on the pros and cons from every walk of life. Many have had their own vision/prediction that this or that will happen, or that, unsuitable situations could have been averted.

But as it is, it all went into the deaf ears of the confronting parties, and thus, the ULB election, 2017 was conducted in only some pockets of Nagaland with 33% reservation for women, which was later declared null and void by the state Government due to reasons known to one and all.

The game was played with tough competition, courage shown cruelty meted/committed, sacrifices made, compassion and kindness expressed too. There both the parties are sill contesting with various problems and issues arising out of the ULB election in the state. The reason being, it is a political issue wherein both parties are playing their best with no result till date.

They are yet to arrive at a solution.

And alas! The common people are made to suffer for no fault of theirs. But then with any problem, there is always a solution. So, it is sincerely hoped and prayed that the public will not be taken and put to ransom for long, because it is always the public who are at the receiving end.

Heikieleung Zeliang Founder & First President Erstwhile Nagaland Govt. Primary Teachers’ Association (N)

A sincere appeal to JCC, NTAC and the Government of Nagaland

W

e live in a society where we depend on the Centre for more than 90% of our resources. A small number of citizens depend directly on those, while the rest majority of the population indirectly depend on them, by way of business establishments. We are a state without resource generation sources, and a considerable number of population survive hand to mouth.

Since November, the demonetization has crippled families where the small income families who rely on cash honorarium were hit the most. For our state, the current imbroglio jumped in right after, which continues to this day. Thus, overall this is the 4th month

that the common citizens are bearing the brunt of issues which the leaders promises, is for the betterment of the society.

Any problem of differences which arises calls for a solution within a shortest possible duration. The longer an issue id dragged and stretched, the messier and more entangled it becomes. The result? It is the common people who continue to suffer the worst, besides the fear psychosis and the unpredictability we are drowning into.

We are, but a small group of deeply concerned women trying to share a jist of the ground realities.

A small group, yet we believe we serve as a voice of many citizens affected by the crisis. Through it, we

wish to make an earnest and a sincere appeal to all the stakeholders, to come to an amicable solution at the earliest : • We have students appearing their exams under verbal abuse and unexpressible psychological torment; students who have to sweat and walk to their exam centres due to unavailability of public transport, when it is indubitable that a student needs a peaceful and a calm environment to concentrate on their studies.

• We have the other students whose class have been paused for a while now. It is evident that the teachers would struggle to finish the required syllabus on time when

the classes resume. cases, their source of inning their start ups via • We have the low income come is blocked. internet, etc. families, struggling to • We are now in a digital The above is a small pay for the admission world where depen- highlight of the untold fees, books, uniforms, dency on the internet is hardships the public are etc., of their children. on the rise. The bandh facing. And as mothers, our • We have daily wage lacalled by the civil societ- primary concern continues bourers, small busiies, coupled with a vir- to be our innocent chilness owners in a fix over tual bandh by the state dren – the students – due to where to find a source to government has brought which our points focused feed their families. life to a standstill. The in- more on them.

• We have sick people, unternet blockade has also There is a time for evable to buy medicines been affecting the pub- erything. A time to break on time, unable to freely lic in an innumerable down and a time to build commute to the hosnumber of ways : stu- up. A time of war and a time pitals, clinics, for treatdents appearing exams of peace (Ecclesiastes). A ment. solely on their books, time to fight, and a time to • We have students halted educated unemployed forgive, heal and work toat different universities youths missing out on gether again, in Christian across the country and the job applications, spirit. beyond, whose monthly families unable to acThereby, we make a allowances, house rents, cess the online banking sincere appeal to all stakecollege and hosel fees, facilities, students taking holders to consider the etc are delayed because online courses, digitally grievances of the public, their parents are unable employed youths, small and lift the bandh, includto wire them, or in some business owners run- ing the virtual bandh. It is

our humblest prayer that our leaders would put aside their differences, and begin working towards a solution which would benefit the society as a whole, as well as ease the public from the hardships. The citizens have been bearing the best we could, but it has now come to a point where it is a matter of survival for many.

As we also express our gratitude to the honorable Governor for his relentless contribution, we also appeal that he would continue to initiate dialogues with the leaders, to restore peace in our society.

We also make an earnest appeal to the women, to begin joining hands again, to bring back the needed normalcy in our society. As women, our prior-

ity remains a peaceful environment for our family, which is the smallest unit of a society. And it’s time to work towards achieving peace in our households, for our society.

We also urge all citizens regardless of age, gender, background, to join hands towards the healing of our society, as a family. Bringing our society to a standstill is only leading to an economic breakdown, and a fiasco which would take a long time to heal, or maybe never if an amicable solution is not achieved at the earliest.

Veselu Swuro, Zakie-u, Renchumi Namgi, Alemla, Netsutsolu Nyekha, Orenponi Humtsoe

The Morung Express “Public Space” is to provide space for diverse opinions to be expressed and heard. The opinions in the “Public Space” do not reflect the views and position of the newspaper nor the editor.

6

friday 17•02•2017

IN FOCUS The Power of Truth

The Morung Express

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

C O M M E N T A R Y

Peter Apps Reuters

North Korea gives Trump Playfields are shrinking a nuclear crisis from hell I G volume XII Issue 45

By Witoubou Newmai

n a time when playfields are fast shrinking, the days of bandh in Nagaland have become a boon for children who have been deprived of outdoor games.

In the past few days when their elders are fully engaged in talks and tugs on ruckuses kicked up by the issue of Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) election, bat wielding children saw green and soft fields in empty colony lanes and deserted market corners to plant their stumps and dreams in.

If their elders say that the ongoing agitation is the pent up anger of the people on the government, children’s frustration too find a space to spew over in this time of distress for their senior family members.

The callous and skewed policies of the concerned authorities can trigger a disaster but not as much disastrous as the negative effects informed by the disruption of the normal growth of children, both mental and physical.

It is no exaggeration to say that school bags have become heavier by the year and fun times more limited for the growing children. This is not a new argument advanced to find a reason as to why Jack is a ‘dull’ boy.

Nuanced debates of what constitutes ‘quality time for children’ have been further ruffled by our obsession of so called development. This obsession, in fact, is responsible for all the ‘ailments’ the children suffer today. This resultant apathy and indifference is here to stay as long as our ‘development’ obsession blinds the authorities.

As we know, childhood is a period of curiosity about things around. Development of children in various realms cannot be enhanced unless required facilities are met, and, playfields are one of the vital thriving grounds in this progression.

The attitude of today’s society seeing their children as ‘commercial and decorative’ beings has reduced the whole affair into artificiality. Seeing this, it will not be too much of a comparison with the manner of the Broiler chicken keeping.

When we say shrinking of playfields in our towns, it is a matter of great concern. One is even more concerned due to the lack of concern shown by our society in this area. This scenario has brought about distortions and disruptions in our inherited lifestyle. Our society, with utmost urgency, should address this concern so as to enable our youth to survive the distortions and disruptions of our inherited values, and at the same time, to dismantle the progress of artificiality which is fast weaving into the warp and woof of our lifestyle today.

To dilate this issue is a matter of immense importance.

lEfT WING |

K. Rajendran Thomson Reuters Foundation

Tribal women corner the market on India's heat-hardy black goats

T

he lean black goats owned by the tribal people of Attapadi, in India's Western Ghats, are known for their resilience. Not only are they resistant to most of the diseases that sicken other goats, they have a unique ability to prosper in southern India's increasingly severe heat, researchers say.

"Black goats can withstand even scorching heat without much care and attention," said T. Giggin, a professor of agriculture at Kerala Agricultural University.

That reputation for hardiness has not been lost on the region's livestock dealers, who in recent years have trekked into the foothills to buy the goats inexpensively from struggling tribal families and then sell them on, at much higher prices, in livestock markets.

Now, however, tribal communities have come together to cut out the middlemen and keep more income at home by establishing just one "goat village" where all the region's tribal people sell their animals at a fixed price to visiting buyers.

The change has helped shore up tribal families amid scorching heat that in recent years has dried up many streams in the region's hamlets and forced an increasing number of families to sell livestock or migrate to cities in Kerala and Tamil Nadu in search of work.

"This coming summer I have a strong weapon (against drought) – our indigenous Attapadi black goat," said Ponnamma Thaghachan, a 38-year-old farmer in the village of Kullappadi.

PAYING MORE In previous years, Vijayan Nair, a livestock trader from Kozhikode, said he was able to purchase black goats from villages in Attapadi for Rs. 1,000 ($15) each, as drought-hit families sold off stock in search of cash. "Due to the early advent of the drought, almost all the other goat breeds across Kerala are tired," he said. "But demand for the tough Attapadi goats has been hugely raised."

His most recent visit, however, which aimed at taking home a dozen black goats for resale, wasn't quite so profitable.

In Agali, where local people now bring their goats for sale, the animals sell for a minimum of Rs. 280 ($4) per kilo, or more than Rs. 5,000 ($75) for a typical animal.

"I sold my 20-kilo goat for Rs. 5,600 ($84), and the money was immediately credited to my bank account," said Sundhari, a tribal woman who is among those raising the hardy goats. "Now I am sorry that last summer I sold three goats, much bigger than this one, for just Rs. 1,000 each," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The goat-selling cooperative, created by a coalition of women's self-help groups with the assistance of the National Livestock Mission, serves 192 tribal villages, its backers said.

"Now no middlemen can loot the tribes.

People can sell Attapadi goats only through the goat village and buyers can purchase them only through us," said Seema Bhaskar, who coordinates the project for the National Livestock Mission.

Even at the higher prices, demand for the goats remains relatively strong, with 28 goats sold over one recent week in January. "Every day we are getting inquiries from farmers across the state. They want the genuine breed," Bhaskar said.

Centralising sales could also help buyers, who sometimes inadvertently buy animals that are not Attapadi black goats, she said.

Joseph Kurian, a livestock farmer from Kottayam who visited the village recently, said he two years ago bought a goat that was sold as an Attapadi – but became aware he had been cheated when it fainted in the heat. He said he was willing to pay a fair price – "but I should get the genuine breed," he said.

With summer temperatures continuing to rise in the region, Attapadi goat breeders say they're aware they may soon have competition from some of their buyers, who intend to begin breeding the handsome animals themselves.

The women are now looking to other products the cooperative might sell. One women's group in the neighbouring village of Pudur has started offering traditional medicines from a central sales point, and another group, in Sholayur, is now selling organic food.

eorge W. Bush invaded Iraq to remove its – ultimately nonexistent – weapons of mass destruction. Barack Obama used cyber weaponry and sanctions to deter Iran from building its own atomic bomb. Now Donald Trump faces North Korea, but stopping its nuclear and missile program may prove impossible, creating what may be his first and perhaps defining international crisis.

Trump has been left to confront North Korea’s nuclear activities because his predecessors failed to manage them. The regime in Pyongyang, meanwhile, continues to build ever more dangerous – and hard-to-destroy or intercept – weapons systems.

North Korea has been a thorn in the side of the United States since the days of Harry S. Truman. The Korean War came dangerously close to sparking a nuclear confrontation, with the White House preventing U.S. commander Douglas MacArthur from using atomic weapons to stop the Chinese and North Korean armies. Under Pyongyang’s current leader Kim Jong-un, it is reaching what may be its most dangerous point since then.

Washington’s foreign policy establishment has a host of disagreements with Trump. They think he is wrong on immigration, too soft on Russia, too dangerously hawkish on China. On North Korea they are in the same hole as he is with no real ideas about how to get out.

This is a crisis everyone has seen coming. That’s why Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been so desperate to court Trump, visiting him even before the inauguration. As North Korea launched an intermediate medium-range ballistic missile on Sunday, Abe was once again with the president – this time on a golf and bonding trip to Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida retreat.

It’s also why U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis made his first official trip to the region. His priority was to reassure Japan and South Korea in particular that the United States would stand with them – whatever noises Trump made during his election campaign.

Pyongyang first demonstrated its ability to detonate a crude nuclear device in 2006 – becoming the only Iraqor Iran-style “rogue state” to ever get that far. Since then, it has continued to develop not just the bombs but also the missiles to deliver them.

Ultimately, the regime would love to have the ability to strike the continental United States – a prospect Trump has tweeted to say “won’t happen”. For now, however, there are few signs anyone has a plan to stop it.

It’s not that Pyongyang has ambitions to launch some kind of unilateral strike – that would be suicidal. What it wants is a deterrent to protect it from any kind of Iraq- or Libya-style “regime change”.

To achieve that, it first needs a lim-

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un guides the test-fire of Pukguksong-2 on the spot, in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang February 13, 2017. (REutERs Photo)

ited number of land-based nucleartipped rockets with the ability to strike at least as far as Japan. Each test brings that goal closer.

In the slightly longer term, it wants to be able to mount rockets and warheads on a small fleet of diesel electric submarines. These could be positioned offshore or along its mountainous coastline, hard to track and destroy and – because of the unpredictability of their locations – harder to intercept should the rockets one day be launched.

Nothing the United States has done has seriously frustrated that ambition.

In the aftermath of the Iraq invasion, Bush had limited success in using financial aid – and the threat of greater sanctions – to persuade Pyongyang to slow its program, even demolishing a cooling tower at the nuclear facility in Yongbyon.

That still wasn’t enough to stop the 2006 nuclear test. And with the accession of Kim Jong-un after the death of his father in 2011, North Korea has been much more single-minded in its atomic ambitions.

Following the apparent success of the Stuxnet computer worm against the Iranian nuclear program, there are suggestions the Obama administration tried something similar against North Korea, but the attempt was much less successful. Such covert activities have likely continued, but they may not be enough.

Since Bill Clinton in the nineties, successive U.S. presidents have been presented with options for more direct action such as air and missile strikes.

How successful they would be, however, has never been clear. Pyongyang has no shortage of ways in which it could respond, not least through using conventional artillery to strike U.S. and South Korean targets. The South Korean capital, with its population of more than 10 million, is firmly in range of North Korean guns which, like its nuclear program, are believed to be stored in deep, hard– to-destroy bunkers.

One option now on the table would be for the United States to attempt to intercept a future North Korean missile test with some of its anti-ballistic missiles in the region. That didn’t happen on Sunday, perhaps in part because that test occurred over a relatively short distance, mostly over or near North Korean territory.

Attempting to shoot down a longerrange missile test would be easier – but the success of such an action could never be guaranteed. If it failed, the United States would essentially have advertised its inability to intercept a North Korean missile, sparking even greater concern in the region.

The political fallout of a botched intercept would also be significant for any U.S. president.

That leaves diplomatic options, such as applying pressure through China. Beijing’s economic support for North Korea is vital to its survival, and the topic was likely high on the agenda during Trump’s first call with the Chinese premier. But China is reluctant to do anything that might bring about the collapse of the regime and potentially put South Korean or U.S. troops on its border.

Beijing has also long argued that

anything it did to undermine North Korea might hasten the unraveling of the regime, bringing with it the danger that Pyongyang might lash out, perhaps with nuclear force.

There are a variety of potential targets for North Korea even if it cannot reach the United States. They include regional U.S. bases such as Guam as well as South Korea. Many experts believe a Japanese target might be the most likely, not least because of lingering resentment over atrocities in World War Two. In time, that threat might be enough to prompt Tokyo to acquire its own nuclear arsenal – something that would antagonize Beijing, and arguably make the region even more volatile.

Trump may see himself as a master of the “art of the deal”, and has raised the prospect he might meet North Korean leaders. His problem is that there may be no deal to be done. This situation may become more dangerous – perhaps until something truly cataclysmic happens.

Peter Apps is Reuters global affairs columnist, writing on international affairs, globalization, conflict and other issues. He is founder and executive director of the Project for Study of the 21st Century; PS21, a non-national, non-partisan, non-ideological think tank in London, New York and Washington. Before that, he spent 12 years as a reporter for Reuters covering defense, political risk and emerging markets.

Since 2016, he has been a member of the British Army Reserve and the UK Labour Party.

Will Trump Complete the Pivot to Asia?

John Feffer

J

Foreign Policy in Focus

ames Mattis visited Asia this month on his first foreign trip as the new head of the Pentagon. It was less a get-acquainted visit than a damage control tour. His boss, President Donald Trump, had threatened to escalate tensions with China and prevent North Korea from launching a nuclear-capable ICBM. He’d accused Japan of currency manipulation. He wanted both Tokyo and Seoul to pay more for their alliance with America. He’d unceremoniously pulled out of a free-trade agreement – the Trans Pacific Partnership (TTP) – that the United States had previously gone all out to promote.

Like the good cop who comes in to soften up a suspect that’s been abused by the bad cop, Mattis made many reassuring statements on his trip and even directly contradicted his administration. Allies were paying their share, he said. The U.S. military would stand firm behind Japan and South Korea.

And diplomacy not military force was the way to solve disputes like those in the South China Sea. The question is not which cop is in charge of U.S. foreign policy (answer: both are in charge). The underlying question is what the administration ultimately wants for Asia. It can stick, more or less, with the status quo. Or it can finish what the Obama administration tried and failed to do: shift the emphasis of U.S. military and economic policy away from the Middle East and toward Asia.

During its two terms, the Obama administration managed to shift some

Obama failed to execute an economic and military pivot to Asia. Will Trump pick up the fumble and run with it? of the emphasis of U.S. foreign policy toward Asia, the wealthiest and most heavily militarized region of the world.

The United States continued to encourage Japan to break out of the restraints of the “peace constitution.” It relocated some Marines from the controversial Futenma military base on Okinawa to other places in the region.

It solidified U.S. relations with Vietnam on the basis of mutual fear of China. It persuaded the Philippines to welcome back U.S. military forces at five permanent installations on the island chain.

It overcame initial South Korean reluctance to deploy the THAAD missile defense system.

These developments, which certainly reinforced the status quo, did not add up to a pivot. Like its two predecessors, the Obama administration was not able to “solve” the Okinawa problem by having a replacement facility built for the Futenma Marine Air Force base. It was not able to redirect a substantial portion of U.S. military forces from the Middle East and Europe to the Pacific. It could not ultimately conclude the TTP and compete more effectively with China in the regional economy. Despite its explicit desire to do cut its losses in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Obama administration was still pinned down in both

ing China as the country that will guide the global economy in the absence of a newly protectionist United States.

It’s possible that Trump, ever the businessman, will come to realize like all recent U.S. presidents that China is too big to ignore and too powerful to antagonize. Even George W. Bush found common ground with Beijing, particularly on counter-terrorism. But others in the Trump administration, like strategic advisor Steve Bannon, see China as a civilizational threat – officially atheist, non-white, committed to a cross between centralized economic control and crony capitalism. Bannon has no problem partnering with authoritarian governments. But China falls outside the conservative, Christian, Caucasian coalition that Bannon wants to build worldwide.

With a larger military, a Republican-controlled Congress, and a willingness to use all the power concentrated in the executive branch, Trump will likely try to complete the Pacific pivot even as he bombs the Islamic State, builds a wall along the border with Mexico, and antagonizes European allies. This attempt at full-spectrum dominance may bankrupt the American economy and irreparably damage the global economy.

But Trump guided his business empire into bankruptcy an extraordinary six times in the past. Asians should obviously think twice about linking arms with such a volatile political ally and such an unreliable business partner.

countries. The fight against the Islamic State had replaced al-Qaeda and the Taliban as the chief focus of U.S. military attention.

According to some of his campaign rhetoric, Donald Trump was interested not in a Pacific pivot but rather a Homeland pivot. He emphasized “America first,” which suggested that he might reduce U.S. military footprint overseas in order to direct resources into rebuilding U.S. infrastructure and industry. But even before he took office, Trump moved quickly to dispel those illusions. He took a phone call from the Taiwanese president, a break with tradition that indicated a new toughness toward Beijing. He began to prepare the groundwork for a major increase in military spending, as much as $1 trillion over ten years, which the Republican Congress is eager to support.

The Trump administration views China as the only serious threat to American power in the world. Although previous U.S. governments have eventually settled on a congagement approach to Beijing – a mixture of military containment and economic engagement – the Trump administration John Feffer is the director of Foreign seems interested only in confrontation. Policy In Focus and the author of dysFor his part, Xi seems to be position- topian novel Splinterlands

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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.

Friday 17•02•2017

PERSPECTIVE

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

7

Defending democracy in Latin America … which democracy?

Stefano Palestini

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openDemocracy

gainst whom must democracy be defended? Who must be protected? Today, uncertainty in the region, but especially in the United States and Europe, reshapes the answer to these questions Since the early 1990s, political elites have enthusiastically embraced the values and practices of democracy in the Americas. At the international level, this enthusiasm translated into collective commitments to defend democracy against its enemies, through specific instruments added to the legal frameworks of the regional organizations existing in the region. The tendency has continued in the new millennium as new organizations - such as the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) have also committed themselves to assist and, if necessary, to sanction those countries in which democracy is breached.

Liberal intellectuals and politicians were quick (maybe too quick) to interpret these regional developments as further proof of the consolidation of democracy in the western hemisphere. Yet, it is worth taking a more careful look at this phenomenon, especially in a phase in which illiberal democracies, competitive authoritarian and truly authoritarian regimes seem to be coming to stay, at least for a while, alongside traditional democracies in the Americas and in Europe.

Which “democracy” should be protected?

There is no single, uncontested definition of what democracy is. As we showed together with Carlos Closa and Pablo Castillo in a study published by the EU-LAC Foundation, the understanding of what democracy is varies a great deal between and within regional organizations.

Negotiating among 28 national governments (in the European Union) or 35 (in the Organization of American States, OAS) what democracy means and, conversely, which types of actions constitute a “democratic breach” can be a daunting task. The solution found in most regional organizations in Latin America, but also in Europe, has been to keep the definition “imprecise”, thus making the collective commitment to democracy an incomplete contract.

Certainly, there are different degrees of imprecision, and there are also different ways of being imprecise. In the Americas, the InterAmerican Democratic Charter of the OAS, for instance, stands out as a relatively precise instrument spelling out in several articles what democracy means. During the drafting of the Charter, there was a conflict between two conceptions: while most delegations defended the concept of representative democracy, the Venezuelan delegation strove for introducing the notion of participatory democracy. The former prevailed, but in a broad conception encompassing elements from the latter such as political participation, as well as other socially-progressive elements such as gender equality.

The instruments of the Andean Community (CAN), the Central American Integration System (SICA) and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) are far less precise.

CAN’s Additional Protocol does not define democracy altogether. Yet, this was not an impediment to define the sanctions against non-democratic behaviour. SICA and CARICOM, in turn, are imprecise, not

because they are too austere (like CAN) but, on the contrary, because they are too ambitious: these organizations list a large number of values and principles without explicitly connecting them to the definition of democracy or to explicit procedures about what to do when those principles are violated.

Imprecision may be considered an institutional shortcoming. Indeed, it is in many ways. However, it is also functional for those who must enforce those instruments, namely the national governments. Let’s recall that unlike human right protection systems in which there are autonomous judicial institutions (e.g. the Inter-American Court of Human Rights), democracy protection rules are interpreted and enforced by the governments themselves. Hence, the incumbent governments enjoy a wide room for maneuver and discretion when rules are imprecise, and they can decide when and how to enforce them. Furthermore, the lack of precise rules paves the way for bringing power and ideological considerations to the negotiation table, as when Argentines and Brazilians decided to enforce democracy-protection rules and suspend Paraguay from Mercosur, while simultaneously approving the accession of Venezuela, hitherto blocked by the Paraguayan parliament.

Who is the victim, who is the offender Democracy must be defended, but against whom? And who must be protected? Who “embodies” democracy? These issues are easier to solve in a human rights protection system, since there is a list of rights to be protected and because those rights are embodied in individuals that can resort to the judicial bodies with human right jurisdiction, national or international.

All this becomes significantly blurrier when we deal with the defense of democracy, not only because the definition is imprecise, but also because it is not clear who is the victim of a violation of democracy and to whom the victim (whoever he, she or it is) should resort for relief. If we analyze the design and the cases where the instruments for democracy protection in Latin America have been enforced, it is not hard to realize that there is a strong bias towards conceiving incumbent governments as the victims. This is largely explained by the fact that Latin American states are all presidential regimes, and also because of the long history of coups d’état in the region. As long as presidents have been democratically elected, any attempt to remove them by uncon-

stitutional means is automatically considered a democratic breach.

The Heads of State and Government (the executive branch) are therefore the natural victims, but what about the other branches of the State and the civil society organizations?

The bias towards the incumbent makes most regional organizations in the Americas prone to become “government-protection” rather than “democracy-protection” mechanisms as Carlos Closa and myself have argued elsewhere. That being said, the recent history of the region shows that this bias can take quite different forms depending on the political context. We can identify three distinct moments since early 1990s, when the first regional commitments to protect democracy were made: the liberal, the postliberal, and the one we are entering now, which it is perhaps too early to baptize.

The liberal moment (1988-2001) In this first juncture, most countries were exiting from military regimes (South America) or from civil war (Central America). The transition to democracy was underpinned by a wide pro-democracy international movement supported by the United States and the European Union, both engaged in promoting liberal democracy and liberal market economies in their respective backyards: Latin America and Eastern Europe. Democracy was the “spirit of the time”, and Latin American governments were happy to show off their democratic credentials in all possible forums, including regional organizations, which became clubs of democracies.

Determining who the victim was, and who the offender, was a relatively easy task during the liberal moment. Latin American governments believed that the victims of authoritarian backslidings were the new unstable democracies, such as Haiti, Paraguay and Bolivia. The governments of equally young democracies such as Argentina, Brazil and Chile considered their countries to be lands where democracy was already “the only game in town”, and they therefore supported the collective commitment to protect democracy in their unstable brother countries. The offenders of democracy were, of course, the military still politically active in these unstable democracies, and the collective instrument to protect democratic regimes took the shape of democratic clauses that were supposed to discourage ruthless generals from carrying out coups. The Protocol of Washington (OAS), the Protocol of

Ushuaia (Mercosur) and the Framework Treaty on Democratic Security (SICA), the latter with a stronger security component, were cases in point of liberal instruments of democracy protection.

I would argue that the liberal moment ended with the adoption of the Inter-American Democratic Charter (OAS), hastily approved on 9/11, 2001. The Charter, in fact, was already inspired by a different type of “offenders”, such as Alberto Fujimori and his “self-coup” and therefore represents an institutional evolution compared to the previous democratic clauses.

The post-liberal moment (2002-2013) Following José Antonio Sanahuja, we can call the decade that followed the adoption of the Democratic Charter “post-neoliberal” as it was characterized by governments ideologically at odds with the ones in the 1990s. Left-leaning governments came to office with political programs oriented to reforming, in a more or less radical way, established social and economic structures, thus fueling political opposition.

Whereas in some cases opposition was canalized through institutional channels, in others it took the shape of traditional coups (e.g. Venezuela in 2002, Honduras in 2009, Ecuador in 2010). Yet, in other cases, political opposition took on a hybrid nature, neither fully respectful of institutional channels nor following the model of the traditional coup d’état, for which the democratic clauses had been designed (e.g. Nicaragua in 2004, Bolivia in 2005 and 2008, Ecuador in 2005, Paraguay in 2012).

Left-leaning governments contended that they had become the new victim of anti-democratic actions, especially under the subtle shape of a new threat: the so-called “institutional or soft coups” articulated by reactionary forces opposing social change. And left-leaning governments made their case, as they had indeed very good examples. They demanded and designed more adequate democratic clauses, better adapted to the new scenario.

The Protocol of Georgetown (Unasur, 2010) and the Protocol of Montevideo-Ushuaia II (Mercosur, 2011) were designed to respond not only to flagrant coups, but also to the “threat of breach against the democratic order” - a category under which “institutional coups” could easily fit. More importantly, these new democratic clauses sharpened their teeth by providing a list of sanctions including not only the suspension from the organization, but also harsh economic and diplo-

matic sanctions against the states in certainly say that Latin American which a coup – hard or soft – would governments are not locked into any pre-established path towards take place. democratic consolidation, as some liberal scholars suggested decades The illiberal ago. The collective commitment to moment (since 2013) The dead of Venezuelan President democracy took the form of a highly Hugo Chávez and the controversial incomplete contract that left govelection of his appointed successor ernments a wide space in which to Nicolás Maduro open a new phase in accommodate future political unthe short history of collective democ- certainty. Today, this uncertainty racy protection in Latin America. As comes not only from the region, but it happened in the late 1990s with the also - and perhaps mostly - from neoliberal governments, the econom- outside. Whereas during the “libic crisis (with the help of domestic eral moment” democracy seemed mismanagement) is now eroding the to be the “spirit of the time” spreadpolitical support of leftist leaders. As ing from the US and Europe to the a consequence, centre-right govern- rest of the world, the contemporary ments are coming to power through political discourse in the US and elections (like Mauricio Macri in Ar- in Europe is dominated by discusgentina), or not (like Michel Temer, af- sions concerning citizen inequalter the impeachment of Dilma Rous- ity, the exclusion of minorities, and the return of racism and nativism as seff in Brazil).

Why is this period different from legitimate discourses in the public the previous ones? Not only because sphere.

The optimistic scenario involves the arguable change in the ideological position of several key govern- a process of gradual “completion” ments in the region but, more im- of the democratic-contract through portantly, because the questions of instruments which define more prewho is the victim and who is the of- cisely and widen the concept of defender of democracy are being an- mocracy by accepting, for instance, swered in a different way. Certainly, that not only incumbents, but also some left-leaning governments can the demos can be the victim of a viostill claim that they are being object lation of democracy committed by a of “soft coups” - like Nicolás Maduro, democratically elected government. who has been claiming this through- This optimistic scenario would imout his entire mandate. However, the ply, among other things, conferring Venezuelan crisis has shown that civ- a more relevant role to the suprail society can also claim to be the vic- state bodies of the organization in tim of the non-democratic behavior deciding when and how to apply of an elected government, and resort these mechanisms. During the libto regional organizations to demand eral and the post-liberal moments, the governments worked out a bademocracy protection.

As Andrés Malamud has con- sic consensus about the democratic vincingly argued, the list of proofs commitment. This consensus will supporting Nicolás Maduro’s au- be hard to maintain in the years to thoritarian turn is long: the shut- come, as the ideological spectrum down of press, the violation of civil of governments becomes more hetand political rights, the imprison- erogenous in the region and the US ment of political adversaries, etc. seem less interested in endorsing For more than two years after the liberal values. However, in the opelection of Maduro, the regional timistic scenario, this lack of basic organizations (especially the OAS consensus might offer an opportuand Unasur) were paralyzed in their nity to come up with a more precise incapacity to determine who is the roadmap – namely, higher precision victim: was it the elected govern- in the definitions and rules and, ment threatened by an orchestrat- perhaps, more delegation of comed soft-coup? Or is it (some parts petences from the governments of ) civil society, threatened by an to more independent bodies. Of increasingly authoritarian govern- course, this will only be possible if ment? The OAS was quickly fended- there is a regional leadership filling off by Maduro’s government, while the gap that, at least under the last Unasur languished after an exhaust- four administrations (including the ing mediation process in which it current one), the US has seemed was accused by many national and unwilling to fill.

The pessimistic scenario starts international actors of taking the governments’ side. This accusa- from the same premises but draws tion reflects the already mentioned different conclusions. The lack of strong structural bias of Latin Amer- consensus and the emergence of ican regional organizations towards cases of political distress that cannot be easily classified as coups, will protecting the incumbent.

The pro-incumbent bias was inhibit governments in making use challenged, though, when in July of the regional organizations and 2016 the general secretary of the OAS their democracy protection instruLuís Almagro, former foreign min- ments. The fact that, for the first time ister of Uruguay, initiated the pro- since the OAS adopted a democratcedures to activate the democratic ic commitment, a US government clause of the organization against the could be pursuing policies at odds Venezuelan government. Almagro with the organization’s own definibegan his intervention with a re- tion of democracy shows the levels markable exhortation to the nation- of uncertainty that the governments al representatives: “The OAS must of the region, as well the regional know today whether its Democratic organizations, are facing. And unCharter is a strong instrument to de- certainty together with a lack of an fend the principles of democracy, or alternative leadership from a Mexif it is to be shelved in the archives of ico, too attached to the North, and the organization. Please, have your a Brazil too domestically troubled, say”. Although the clause has not will most probably breed paralysis been applied to Venezuela so far, this in which case, the General Secretary intervention is of great significance Almagro’s warning might become since, without breaking the pro-in- real: the democratic clauses will be cumbent bias, it has at least unveiled shelved in the archives of the organizations… at least for a while. the tensions surrounding it.

Protecting democracy in “illiberal times” What will be the future role of regional organizations as defenders of democracy in Latin America?

One can suggest scenarios. We can

Stefano Palestini is a Chilean political scientist and sociologist. He researches the role of regional organizations in democracy promotion and development at the Free University of Berlin.

The Algerian Emir Who Set a Protection of Prisoners Code in 1842 Inter Press Service

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s far back as the 1830s, Algerian Emir Abd el Qader el Jazairy was known for having introduced, among others, rules concerning the humane treatment of prisoners, which developed in 1842 into his Code for the Protection of Prisoners.

“The Emir’s Code prohibited mistreatment of prisoners and the killing of unarmed enemy soldiers or prisoners. In the Emir’s jails, there were no ‘enemy combatants’ prevented from enjoying basic human rights,” explained Idriss Jazairy, the executive director of the Geneva Centre for Human Rights Advancement and Global Dialogue.

“Henri Dunant, the great Swiss humanitarian activist is credited with having introduced the first code to protect war prisoners that led to the creation of the Red Cross.

That was in 1863, some twenty years after the adoption of the Emir’s Code,” he added.

The executive director of the Geneva Centre made this statement during to an event

tury Algerian leader, Emir Abd el Qader, and the universality of Islamic values, at the renowned Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies of Oxford University.

Jazairy also spoke about the Emir’s contribution to identify commonalities between Islam and Christianity in order to promote peace, social justice and inter-religious harmony between Muslims and Christians.

“He asserted in a letter of July 1862 to a French bishop, Mgr. Pavy, that the teachings of both of these faiths were the same and could be encapsulated in two principles: the worship of God and compassion towards His creatures.

Our religions, he averred, only differ in the prescriptions provided as to how best to comply with these cardinal principles.

“This brings the Emir to the conclusion in his book ‘Reminder to the Thoughtful and Notice to the Oblivious’ that religions are complementary and all lead to tolerance,” Jazairy said.

During his presentation, he also referred to the example

cus, during civil strife in 1860 that was widely commended by world leaders at that time.

The Emir’s decision to provide protection to religious minorities reflect the Emir’s dedication to upholding what he called “the rights of humanity” an expression that preceded, and anticipated, the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 85 years later.

The executive director of the Geneva Centre also expressed his concerns that the world press, by calling the authors of terrorist action “Jihadis”, unwittingly provide religious legitimacy for their heinous crimes and accredit the idea that Islam inspires terrorism.

He argued that this was tantamount to “Islamising crime rather than denouncing the criminalisation of Islam.”

“This provides terrorist groups with recruitment publicity while stimulating in credulous people’s minds, both in the Middle East and in the West, a conflation of Islam with terrorism,” the executive director of the Geneva Centre warned.

By this standard, the Emir

squares and streets across the world bearing his name and with even a city in the U.S. state of Iowa named after him, he explained.

Not a single year has elapsed in recent times without new books and innumerable articles being published about this towering international figure, said Jazairy.

“The Emir was honoured by no lesser world leaders of his time than Abraham Lincoln, Queen Victoria, Tsar Alexander II, Sultan Abdelmajid I and of course Napoleon III. Praised also was he by no lesser writers and poets than Rimbaud and Voltaire, Browning and Thackeray.”

The Emir is known to have fought the French invaders of Algeria for 17 years from 1830 to 1847. He waged 116 battles and confronted, at times defeating them, five princes of the French Royal Household, ten field-marshals and 150 generals, Jazairy reminded.

“Despite the fact that the French army outnumbered 10 to 1 the troops of the Emir, despite the former’s resort to

Abdelkader saving Christians during the Druze/Christian strife of 1860. Painting by Jean Baptiste Huysmans. Public Domain

bile cannon, the French conquest was slow, even laborious. Its vagaries called for the replacement of the Minister of War in France 16 times during this period.”

He noted that Algeria has a long history of resisting foreign invasion and occupation.

Jugurtha, born in 160 BC, for instance, a courageous leader of Algeria, resisted the Roman invasion for seven years.

years. In December 1847, the fighting officially ended leading to what Algerians refer to as a treaty to end hostilities.

The French called it, not ingenuously, a surrender.”

By this treaty the French committed inter alia to the transfer of the Emir, his family and followers to Alexandria or Acre. However, the treaty was shamefully violated by France, Jazairy noted.

Global Dialogue is a think-thank dedicated to the promotion of human rights through crosscultural, political, religious and civilizational dialogue, and through training of the upcoming generations of stakeholders in the Arab region.

The Centre works towards a value-driven human rights system, challenging politicisation and building bridges between different narratives

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FriDAY 17•02•2017

INDIA

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

Sasikala loyalist Palaniswami becomes new Tamil Nadu CM Chennai, February 16 (ianS): K. Palaniswami, a loyalist of the jailed AIADMK leader V.K. Sasikala, on Thursday took oath as Tamil Nadu's Chief Minister, ending for now an ugly war within the ruling party.

Governor C. Vidyasagar Rao administered the oath of office and secrecy to Palaniswami, 63, and his team at the Raj Bhavan, only hours after inviting him to form a government.

Palaniswami took oath in Tamil, followed by 30 ministers in batches. He has to prove his majority in the assembly within 15 days. The assembly has, however, been convened on Saturday and the Sasikala faction said it was confident of proving its majority of at least 117 legistors in the house of 234.

"We have the support of 125 legislators and we will prove our majority," V.N.Virugai Ravi, a legislator, told IANS. Palaniswami has retained the crucial Finance Ministry he had in the outgoing government of O. Panneerselvam, whose attempt to foil Sasikala's bid to be the Chief Minister led to bitter fighting in the AIADMK. A farmer by profession, Palaniswami also retained the portfolios of Public Works, Highways and Minor Ports he held in the earlier government.

MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarup is new envoy to Canada

new Delhi, February 16 (ianS): Vikas Swarup, the official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, was on Thursday appointed as lndia's envoy to Canada. Swarup, an Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer of 1986 batch, is presently Additional Secretary. He is expected to take up his new assignment shortly, an official statement said. Swarup will replace Arun Kumar Sahu bengaluru, February 16 (ianS): AIADMK Gen- who is currently working as acting Indian High Commiseral Secretary V.K. Sasikala had a hard time in the Central sioner to Canada. Swarup, a well-known author, penned Jail here as she could not sleep and was restless at night, a the novel "Q & A", which was adapted in film as "Slumdog Millionaire", which won several Oscars. party leader said on Thursday.

"Chinnamma could not sleep well and was restless as she had to sleep on the floor in a 10x8 feet ordinary cell in the women's barracks after jail officials denied her request for a mattress," the AIADMK's Karnataka unit Secretary, V. Pugazhendhi, told reporters. As the trial court denied Sasikala's demand for some privileges, including home food, she refused to have supper on Wednesday Sitapur (uttar praDeSh), February 16 night though she was served two rotis, one ragi ball, 200 (ianS): Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi said on gm rice and 150 gm sambar (lentil) like all other inmates. Thursday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should stop "When Saskiala's sister-in-law and co-convict Ela- "Mann ki Baat" and must listen to people to understand varasi cajoled her to have food in view of her weak health, their sufferings in the wake of demonetisation. Addressshe took rice with sambar and butter milk," a jail source ing an election rally here, he also slammed Modi for not told IANS on the condition of anonymity. waiving off the loans of farmers. "There was a meeting The judge also rejected Sasikala's request for a spe- yesterday (Wednesday). Some people raised their voice cial room for prayers and yoga, A-class facilities and an against demonetisation. Modiji asked, what is their probattached toilet-cum-bathroom. She was given a plate, a lem?" "Modiji, you should stop 'Mann Ki Baat' and should tumbler and a blanket. Before entering the cell, she deposited her valuables at the counter and recorded the 21 listen to the people. You'll understand the problems peodays she spent earlier in the prison as per the procedure. ple are facing due to demonetisation," said Gandhi. "To Expressing anguish over her plight and harsh condi- waive off loans, you (Modi) don't need to be in power in tions in which women inmates live in prisons, Pugazhen- Uttar Pradesh for that. Your government is at the Centre, di said Sasikala woke up early (5 a.m.), did yoga and so you should waive off the loans. Why are you waiting for elections?" Gandhi said. walked in the barracks for a while.

"She also read a couple of Tamil newspapers, had lemon rice for breakfast at 7.30 a.m. and a frugal meal (sambar rice) for lunch at 12.30," said Pugazhendi.

Saskiala, 59, surrendered before the trial court here on Wednesday evening and entered the jail premises before 6 p.m after the Supreme Court declined her plea for more ahmeDnagar (maharaShtra), Februtime to give herself up.

As trial court judge Ashwath Narayana denied her ary 16 (ianS): In a rare display of solidarity, all the privileges she sought on health grounds, Sasikala was 1,100 voters boycotted Thursday's polling for the Jeur lodged in a 10x8 feet cell in the women's barracks.

Gram Panchayat in Ahmednagar district to protest the This is the second time Sasikala, her sister-in-law deaths of seven locals in a poll-eve dinner and booze Elavarasi and nephew V.K. Sudhakaran are serving their party thrown by two Shiv Sena candidates, an official four-year sentence in the jail after being held guilty for said. The village Sarpanch, Bapusaheb G. Awhad said corruption in a two decade-old illegal wealth case. that the February 12 party for activists has claimed seven The three were in the same jail from September 27 lives so far and another six victims are under treatment, to October 18, 2014 after the trial court held them guilty including three who are critical. "We have submitted a along with late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa, memorandum to the Ahmednagar collector seeking who died on December 5 in Chennai. compensation of Rs 15 lakh for each of the victims, most of who eked out a hand-to-mouth existence and were sole breadwinners for their families," Awhad told IANS. However, there has been no communication from the collectorate after which the entire village boycotted the elections held on Thursday, where Shiv Sena's Mangal Mokate was the sole contestant, he added. The State Election Commission and police security had arrived determination of sex and "It (information on sex de- in time for conducting the polls and left after the polling provides for punishment termination) can affect dehours, without registering a single vote. for its contravention. mography."

The Centre had set up Allaying the apprehena nodal agency to act on sions of the counsel apany public information on pearing for the three search advertisements promoting engines, the court said: "It is sex determination tech- not a case of 'X' individual niques/kits on the internet. acting against 'Y' individuCounsel for the three al. No individual can go (to new Delhi, February 16 (pti): Water level in 91 search engines -- K.V. the court). It is an appro- major reservoirs in the country has dipped to 45 per cent of Viswanathan, Anupam priate authority that alone their total capacity, the government said today. According Lal Das and Ruby Ahuja -- can act under Section 22 to the Union Water Resources Ministry, 71.683 billion cubic urged the court not to pass of the Pre-conception and metres (BCM) of water was available in these reservoirs for order for setting up of an Pre-natal Diagnostic Tech- the week ending on February 16. The stock was 128% of the the in-house expert body, niques (Prohibition of Sex storage reported during the corresponding period last year and 102 per cent of the decadal average, the Ministry said in as it may result into huge Selection) Act, 1994." numbers of mails reaching "Nobody will go to the a statement. Last week, the storage was 48% of the total cathem and could land them criminal court," Justice pacity or 74.977 BCM. The total capacity of the reservoirs is into cases.

Misra said pointing out 157.799 BCM. The states which have recorded less storage As senior counsel Vish- that they are seized of the vis-a-vis the corresponding period last year are Himachal Pradesh, Tripura, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, wanathan told the court matter. that "our view of Section "Take a little step for- Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Punjab, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, 22 of the 1994 Act is yet to ward," said Justice Banu- Odisha, West Bengal, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, be adjudicated", Solicitor mathi.

Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Telangana have reGeneral Ranjit Kumar said: ported better stock compared to last year.

Hard time for 'restless' Sasikala in jail

Stop 'Mann ki Baat', listen to people: Rahul to Modi

Edappadi Palanisamy (left) duirng his meeting with Tamil Nadu Governor C. Vidyasagar Rao at Raj Bhavan in Chennai on Tuesday. ( PTI Photo)

Panneerselvam vows to fight Panneerselvam, who took charge of the government after the December 5 death of Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa, vowed to pursue his fight against "one family" controlling the AIADMK -- a reference to Sasikala.

He said people were angry that a new government was formed with the support of legislators who, he said, were held for days in captivity at a resort near here. His aides said they would meet Election Commission officials in Delhi to complain that Sasikala had no right to be the AIADMK General Secretary.

Sasikala was elected to the top post and then chosen as the AIADMK legislature party leader by MLAs

US government supports setting up F-16 facility in India: Lockheed Martin bengaluru, February 16 (ianS): Lockheed Martin on Thursday said it is getting all support from the US government for its plan to move the production facility of its F-16 next generation fighters to India. Randall L. Howard, F-16 Business Development head at Lockheed Martin, said at a press conference here that talks with the Indian government for the facility have reached a level where it is likely to turn into a government-to-government discussion.

"We have strong support from the US government. The discussions are at a point where it has become a government-to-government issue," Howard said. Lockheed Martin has offered to move its production line of the latest version of fighter aircraft F-16 Block 70 to India from Texas to meet Indian and global requirement.

The Defence Ministry has said it is looking forward to start a line of production for both single engine and twin engine fighter aircraft in India. This will however happen only when India chooses the aircraft for the Indian Air Force.

Randy said so far the company has received a communication from India inquiring about single engine aircraft. In October 2016, the Defence Ministry started issuing requests-for-information (RFIs) for a new singleengine multi-role fighter to replace the Indian Air Force's MiG-21 and MiG-27 fighters. Saab's Gripen and Lockheed Martin's F-16 Block 70 have so far appeared to be top competitors for the deal.

to enable her to replace Panneerselvam as the Chief Minister.

That's when Panneerselvam revolted, leading to the worst faction fighting in the AIADMK. DMK leader M.K. Stalin said the 15 days time given to Palaniswami to prove his majority would result in horse trading.

Shortly after the oath taking, a group of supporters of the new Chief Minister stoned Panneerselvam's house to protest against the presence of a number of backers of the former Chief Minister.

Thursday's celebrations

by Palaniswami supporters came after a day of gloom when Sasikala returned to

the Central Jail in Bengaluru after being held guilty of corruption by the Supreme Court. Also jailed with her were her relatives Elavarsi and V.N. Sudhakaran. Sasikala, who had wished to become the Chief Minister, is now barred from contesting elections for 10 years.

Barring Panneerselvam and Pandiarajan, all other MLAs in "the rival camp are welcome to join us", AIADMK leader O.S. Manian told the media. Hailing from Nedungulam village in Salem district, Palaniswami belongs to the Gounder community. He joined the AIADMK in the 1980s and entered the Tamil Nadu assembly for the first time in 1989 from Edapadi constituency.

Maharashtra village boycotts civic elections due to booze party deaths

Search engines must form own bodies to scan, delete sex determination content: SC

new Delhi, February 16 (ianS): The supreme Court on Thursday asked three internet search engines -- Google India, Yahoo India and Microsoft Corporation (India) Ltd -- to form own "In-House Expert Body" to scan and delete the literature and write-ups related to sex determination.

Directing setting up of such bodies, the bench of Justice Dipak Mistra and Justice R. Banumathi brushed aside the submissions by the three search engines that they may be spared from setting up of such in-house expert bodies as there is already a nodal agency set up by the government for the purpose.

The court said the declining sex ratio is a "disas-

trous signal for mankind" and Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar said: "It (literature on sex determination) can affect demography."

Reiterating its September 19, 2016 direction, through which a nodal agency was set up, the court in its order on Thursday said that the three search engines shall appoint their "In-House Expert Body", which shall take steps to see if any word or any key word shown in the internet has the potential to go counter to Section 22 of the Pre-conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, 1994, and is deleted forthwith.

Section 22 of the 1994 act prohibits advertisements relating to pre-natal

Water level in 91 major reservoirs dips

Three Kashmiris accused in 24% MPs/MLAs say they don't need to pay tax or have no income 2005 Delhi blasts walk free Manoj K.

new Delhi, February 16 (ianS): Over 11 years after three bombs went off in crowded Delhi markets ahead of Diwali killing 67 people, a court here on Thursday let off three Kashmiris accused in the case for lack of evidence.

The court pulled up Delhi Police for failure to prove any links of the accused with the 2005 serial blasts.

The court, while letting off all the three accused, convicted one of them for a minor crime of having links with the Lashkar-e-Taiba.

The serial blasts had gone off in crowded market places of Sarojini Nagar, Kalkaji and Paharganj, rocking the city on October 29, 2005, two days before Diwali when the area was crowded with shoppers.

Additional Sessions Judge Reetesh Singh acquitted Mohammed Hussain Fazili and Mohammed Rafiq Shah of all the charges.

However, the third accused Tariq Ahmed Dar, who worked with a private company, was sentenced to jail for the period already undergone since his arrest on November 10, 2005, for being a member of the banned LeT. This means all the three

IndiaSpend/IANS

would walk free in the case.

The Delhi Police may decide to appeal against the verdict.

The prosecution had accused the three of waging war against the state, conspiring, collecting arms, murder and attempt to murder - the charges if proven could have invited life imprisonment or even death. "There was no link to establish that the accused were part of any conspiracy related to the blast(s)," the judge said in his verdict.

"The prosecution has not been able to prove any link between Fazili and Shah on the one hand and Dar on the other. The contents of these (telephonic) conversations therefore fall short in enabling this court to come to any definite conclusion that Dar was part of the conspiracy behind theses blasts," the court said.

"Therefore in the absence of any evidence regarding Dar being involved in the conspiracy behind these blasts, none of the charges framed against him...are made out."

The court said the prosecution had "miserably" failed to prove that Shah was involved in planting one of the bombs in a bus

in south Delhi.

All three accused were picked up in November that year and have been in Tihar jail since then.

Shah's parents expressed happiness with the judgement but lamented that it was "too late" as their son had spent 11 years in jail.

"It was God's mercy that came as blessing in the court judgement. The Almighty has heard our prayers. Thanks to Allah," his mother Mehmooda said outside the Patiala House court room.

Shah was 22 when he was arrested.

The families of victims however expressed extreme disappointment over the verdict. They said they were expecting the court to punish the accused with death.

They said they will challenged the verdict in a higher court.

"It is really a disappointment. I want justice.

I lost my son, daughterin-law and grandson," sobbed Srina Das outside the courtroom.

She told IANS that she wanted closure to the plight of "losing loved ones" who had gone to buy Diwali gifts "but never returned".

In tax returns filed a year before they were elected, 72% Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress MPs and MLAs claimed they earn less than Rs 10 lakh, according to an analysis of affidavits of 4,848 (of 4,910) lawmakers.

As many as 75% of MPs and MLAs nationwide declared annual incomes less than Rs 10 lakh.

Around 35% of lawmakers said their annual income is less than Rs 2.5 lakh while 40% have declared annual income between Rs 2.5 lakh and Rs 10 lakh.

As many as 1,141 (24 per cent) MPs and MLAs claimed exemption from income tax or have no income at all.

"We can conclude that we are largely a tax non-compliant society," Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said, sarcastically, during his budget speech on February 1.

Sharing income tax data, Jaitley said that of 37 million individuals (of a total population of close to 1.3 billion) who filed tax returns in 2015-16, 9.9 million (27%) declared annual incomes below the exemption limit of Rs 2.5 lakh; 19.5 million (53%) declared annual incomes between Rs 2.5 lakh and Rs 5 lakh, while 7.6 million (20%) declared annual incomes of more than Rs 5 lakh.

If the annual incomes of family (incomes of spouse and dependents, as declared in their respective tax returns) are added to the incomes of MPs and MLAs, 62 per cent legislators' households have an income less than Rs 10 lakh.

About half (2,410) of MPs and MLAs have declared household assets (movable and immovable assets of the elected member, spouse and dependent/s) of more than Rs 2 crore, of which 912 (38% of 2,410) declared family incomes of less than Rs 10 lakh.

Of 1,843 MPs and MLAs with family incomes of more than Rs 10 lakh, 106 declared household assets of less than Rs 1 crore.

Only 25% (1,236 of 4,848) of MPs and MLAs declared in tax returns that their annual incomes were more than Rs 10 lakh; 35% (1,676 of 4,848) declared incomes less than Rs 2.5 lakh.

While 63% Lok Sabha MPs declared annual incomes of less than Rs 10 lakh, only 13% Rajya Sabha MPs declared annual incomes of less than Rs 10 lakh.

Among states, over 80% of MLAs in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Odisha declared annual incomes less than Rs 10 lakh.

As many as 1,676 (35%) elected

representatives declared annual incomes less than Rs 2.5 lakh. Of these, 1,141 (24%) reported to the Election Commission that they were either exempt from income tax on various grounds, such as being a farmer, being from an area mentioned in the sixth schedule of the constitution -- such as the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura -- and so exempt from income tax, or have no income at all.

Only 38% (1,843 of 4848) legislators said they had annual family incomes (income of an MP or an MLA and incomes of family, such as spouse and dependents/s), more than Rs 10 lakh; 28% (1,343 of 4,848) declared family incomes less than Rs 2.5 lakh.

Half of India's elected representatives declared household assets of more than Rs 2 crore; 28% more than Rs 5 crore. As many as 70% of MPs and MLAs had assets more than Rs 1 crore.

Although assets are supposed to

be declared by elected representatives at market price, immovable assets are grossly under valued. A former Election Commissioner said the law was not being used to value assets by lawmakers accurately and urged people to go to court to force lawful evaluations, Indian Express reported in December 2013.

"How long will we overlook facts that stare us in the face?"

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on December 31, 2016. In some way, the Prime Minister drew a correlation between assets and income declared to tax authorities. We found a weak correlation existed between the assets and incomes of MPs and MLAs. * 38%(912 of 2,410) legislators with assets more than Rs 2 crore declared family incomes of less than Rs 10 lakh. * Of 1,079 lawmakers with assets in therangeofRs2croreandRs5crore, only 44 per cent (474) declared incomes more than Rs 10 lakh. * 22% (255 of 1,651) with assets between Rs 2 crore and Rs 10 crore declared incomes less than Rs 2.5 lakh. * 41% (891 of 2,155) with assets between Rs 2 crore and Rs 30 crore declared incomes less than Rs 10 lakh. * Of 156 lawmakers with household assets more than Rs 50 crore, 10 declared incomes less than Rs 10 lakh. * Of 75 legislators with assets more than Rs 100 crore, four reported incomes less than Rs 2.5 lakh. * 7% (106 out of 1,470) with assets less than Rs 1 crore declared annual incomes more than Rs 10 lakh.

fridAY 17•02•2017

WORLD

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

9

North Korean murder: Third suspect arrested in Malaysia KUALA LUMPUR, FebRUARy 16 (ReUteRs): Malaysian police made a third arrest on Thursday in their hunt for the people involved in the murder of the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The third person, whose nationality was not disclosed, was the friend of an Indonesian woman who was detained earlier in the day in connection with the killing of Kim Jong Nam at the airport in the Malaysian capital on Monday, police said.

“He was detained to facilitate investigations as he is the boyfriend of the second suspect,” said Abu Samah Mat, the police chief in Selangor state, told Reuters.

The Indonesian woman was remanded in custody for seven days along with another woman, who held a Vietnamese travel document, who was caught trying to leave the country through the budget airline terminal of Kuala Lumpur airport on Wednesday, the Bernama state news agency reported.

Kim Jong Nam, 46, was assaulted at the same airport on Monday with what was believed to be a fastacting poison as he was about to leave on a flight to Macau.

He sought help, collapsed and died on his way to hospital.

Lawmakers in South Korea earlier cited their spy agency as saying it suspected two female North Korean agents had murdered Kim. U.S. government sources also said they believed North Korean assassins were responsible.

Kim Jong Nam had spoken out publicly against his family’s dynastic control of the isolated, nucleararmed state, and he had also expressed fears for this safety.

South Korea’s intelligence agency told lawmakers in Seoul that the young, unpredictable North Korean leader had issued a “standing order” for his elder half-brother’s assassination, and that there had been a failed attempt in 2012.

Murdered North Korean lived quiet, but open life in Macau James Pomfret

the gym with Kim. According to South Korea’s spy agency, Kim had lived under the protection of ChiBefore he was killed in Malaysia, Kim Jong nese authorities in the China-ruled terriNam, the estranged half-brother of North tory, with at least one of his known wives Korea’s leader, lived quietly in the Asian and two of his children. gambling hub of Macau, avoiding controversy and seemingly relaxed about per- FACEBOOK PAGE sonal safety, according to sources close to A Facebook page under the name Kim him.

Chol, which appears to be his, includes One veteran casino industry source, friends from numerous countries includwho has known him for over a decade, said ing France, Singapore and Switzerland he last met the affable, portly Kim at the and photos of Kim in various locales inFour Seasons Hotel in Macau last month, cluding Macau and Shanghai, as well as when he was eating cake and having a pictures of dogs. drink in the lobby coffee shop.

Kim Chol was the name on the pass“I often saw him by himself. He nev- port Kim Jong Nam used to travel to Maer seemed to have bodyguards,” said the laysia, according to authorities there. source who declined to be named given “I miss Europe,” he posted next to a the sensitivity of the matter. “He didn’t 2008 picture of himself and a man standseem nervous at all.” ing on a yacht. “Living Las Vegas in Asia,” Five years ago, Kim Jong Nam plead- he posted in 2010. ed with his half-brother, Kim Jong Un, to His “likes” include French musician withdraw a standing order for his assas- Serge Gainsbourg and two bars in Singasination, according to the South Korean pore, including one called Girls Bar Kimiintelligence agency. dori. He also “liked” Russian President Some analysts have said Kim Jong Un Vladimir Putin and a Kim Jong Un imperbelieved his brother could be used in any sonator calling himself Kim Jong “Um”. overthrow of his regime. An attempt was According to the casino source and made on Kim Jong Nam’s life in 2012, af- another Macanese businessman who had ter which he did not stay long in any place, known him for years, Kim dabbled in busiand travelled frequently between various ness ventures in Macau including a Japacities in Southeast Asia and China. nese restaurant called Gold Japanese CuiU.S. and South Korean government sine that closed last year. sources said they believed North Korean The Chinese character for “gold” on agents murdered Kim Jong Nam at an air- the restaurant sign was the same characport terminal in Kuala Lumpur on Monday. ter used to depict the word Kim. A source with ties to top officials in It wasn’t possible to verify Kim’s ownPyongyang and Beijing told Reuters that ership in the restaurant with an initial North Korea was not behind the killing. search for companies registered under “Kim Jong Nam has nothing to do with Kim’s name and one known alias show(North) Korea,” the source said. “There is ing up no records at Macau’s Commercial no reason for (North) Korea to kill him.”

Registry Office.

Friends in Macau, where he spent One longtime business associate said much of his time, said Kim Jong Nam was some of Kim’s family in Macau, including an outwardly relaxed man, often casual- an adult son, were now under enhanced ly dressed, sometimes in jeans and san- security. dals, and carried a Louis Vuitton shoulder “It’s very sensitive now,” said the Masatchel. He had a striking dragon tattoo on canese businessman who claims he also his back according to a source who went to once had trade dealings with Kim’s father.

Reuters

A woman who was detained at Kuala Lumpur airport, identified from CCTV footage at the airport and who was alone when she was apprehended, according to police in a statement, is seen circled in this still frame taken from video released on February 16. (REUTERS TV Photo)

North Korean agents have killed rivals abroad before.

The Indonesian woman was alone when she was apprehended, police said. Her passport bore the name Siti Aishah, and gave her date of birth as Feb. 11, 1992, and place of birth as Serang, Indonesia.

The Indonesian foreign ministry said it had requested consular access to the woman.

The first suspect detained had travel documents in the name of Doan Thi Huong, with a birth date of May 1988 and birthplace of Nam Dinh, Vietnam.

‘NO REASON TO KILL’ North Korea has made no public reference to Kim Jong Nam’s death, and calls to the embassy in Malaysia were unanswered.

But a source in Beijing with ties to both the North Korean and Chinese governments told Reuters that North Korea was not involved in his killing, and had no motive.

“Kim Jong Nam has nothing to do with (North) Korea,” the source said. “There is no reason for (North) Korea to kill him.”

“(North) Korea is investigating,” the source said when asked why there has been no publicly denied involvement, adding that North Korea wanted the body returned.

There was also no mention of Kim Jong Nam’s death in North Korean state media, as of early Thursday.

At midnight on Wednesday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun to mark the birthday of his father, the late leader Kim Jong Il, who died in 2011.

The late leader was also the father of Kim Jong Nam. The two had different mothers.

Malaysian police said Kim had been at the airport to catch a flight to Macau on Monday when someone grabbed or held his face from behind, after which he felt dizzy and sought help at an information desk.

“The cause of death is strongly suspected to be a poisoning attack,” said South Korean lawmaker Kim Byung-kee, who was briefed by his country’s spy agency.

Malaysian authorities rebuffed

North Korean officials’ efforts to stop an autopsy being carried out on Kim, three Malaysian government sources familiar with the stand-off told Reuters.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, a Malaysian government leader said he believed the police had received a request from North Korean officials for the body, and it could be eventually released to the North Korean embassy.

“After all the police and medical procedures are completed, we may release the body to the next of kin through the embassy,” Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said.

According to South Korea’s spy agency, Kim had been living with his second wife, under Beijing’s protection, in the Chinese territory of Macau, South Korean lawmakers said.

One of them said Kim also had a wife and son in Beijing.

In Beijing, a foreign ministry spokesman said on Wednesday China was aware of reports of the murder and was closely following developments.

January 2017 third- Malaria vaccine found effective Myanmar ends clearance operations in Rakhine state hottest on record: NASA in early human trial, study says NAy PyI tAW, FebRUARy 16 (IANs): The Myanmar government concluded “clearance operations” in Rakhine state, where the military had imposed a four-month blockade which prompted the UN to warn of possible crimes against humanity, the media reported on Thursday.

The attack on three border posts last October in Maungdaw, bordering Bangladesh, which was subsequently attributed to Rohingya Muslim insurgents, led to the military’s reprisal campaign, Efe news reported.

Human rights organisations have since denounced numerous rapes, tortures, robberies, house burnings and executions perpetrated by the uniformed men against the Rohingya minorities.

However, the Myanmar Armed Forces and the government, led by de facto Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, have denied the allegations and claim that the military’s actions comply with the law.

“The situation in northern Rakhine has now stabilised. The clearance operations undertaken by the military have ceased, the curfew has been eased and there remains only a police presence to maintain

the peace,” said National Security Advisor Thaung Tun on Wednesday.

The National Security Advisor also reiterated the government’s commitment to investigating the allegations of abuses, which have not been clarified so far.

“There can be no excuse for excessive force, for abuses of fundamental human rights and basic criminality. We have shown that we are ready to act when there is clear evidence of abuses,” Thaung said on Wednesday in front of diplomats and representatives of the UN. According to official figures, the number of deaths among the Rohingya after the military operations is around 100, a figure that falls short according to the evidence collected by non-governmental organisations.

During the security operations, the military blocked the entry of independent media, as well as humanitarian aid, thereby preventing an independent investigation.

More than a million of Rohingya live in Rakhine state, where they have faced discrimination since the outbreak of sectarian violence in 2012, which left at least 160 people dead and some 120,000 confined to 67 camps.

NeW yORK, FebRUARy 16 (IANs): January 2017 was just a little cooler than last year and its temperature matched that for the same month in 2007, making it the third warmest January in 137 years of modern record-keeping, according to NASA scientists.

Last month’s temperature was 0.20 degrees Celsius cooler than the warmest January in 2016. However, it was 0.92 degrees Celsius warmer than the mean January temperature from 1951-1980, according to a monthly analysis of global temperatures by scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York.

The results showed that two of the three top January temperature anomalies have been during the past two years.

January 2016 was the hottest on record, at 1.12 degrees Celsius warmer than the January mean temperature, followed by 2007 at 0.96 degrees Celsius warmer. January 2017 placed third.

The monthly analysis by the GISS team is assembled from publicly available data acquired by about 6,300 meteorological stations around the world, ship- and buoy-based instruments measuring sea surface temperature, and Antarctic research stations.

The modern global temperature record begins around 1880 because previous observations did not cover enough of the planet.

LONdON, FebRUARy 16 (IANs): When administered together with antimalarial medication, an experimental malaria vaccine has been found to protect people in early clinical trial.

The study involved 67 healthy adult test persons, none of whom previously had malaria. The best immune response was shown in a group of nine test persons who received the highest dose of the vaccine three times at fourweek intervals.

At the end of the trial, all nine of these individuals had 100 per cent protection from the disease, according to the study published in the journal Nature.

“By vaccinating with a live, fully active pathogen, it seems clear that we were able to set of a very strong immune response,” said study leader Benjamin Mordmueller from German Centre for Infection Research.

“Additionally, all the data

we have so far indicate that what we have here is relatively stable, long-lasting protection,” Mordmueller said.

In the group of test persons who demonstrated 100 per cent protection after receiving a high dose three times, Mordmueller said, the protection was reliably still in place after 10 weeks -- and remained measurable for even longer.

The new vaccine showed no adverse effects on the test persons, Mordmueller said.

Malaria parasites are transmitted by the bite of female Anopheles mosquitoes.

The Plasmodium falciparum parasite is responsible for most malaria infections and almost all deaths caused by the disease worldwide.

The vaccine, PfSPZ-CVac, developed by Sanaria Inc., of Rockville, Maryland, is administered intravenously to generate an immune response to protect against malaria infection.

The vaccine introduces

live Plasmodium falciparum malaria parasites into the bloodstream.

In this study, conducted at the University of Tubingen in Germany, oral antimalarial medication (chloroquine) was given simultaneously to prevent an actual malarial infection.

The researchers showed that PfSPZ-CVac induced a response from vaccine recipients’ T cells -- white blood cells that activate the rest of the immune system -- which was proportional to the dosage of the vaccine.

“That protection was probably caused by specific T-lymphocytes and antibody responses to the parasites in the liver,” Professor Peter Kremsner from Institute of Tropical Medicine, University of Tubingen.

The researchers said their next step is to further test the vaccine’s effectiveness over several years in a clinical study in Gabon.

Netanyahu, Trump backs away from commitment to a two-state solution WAsHINGtON, FebRUARy 16 (ReUteRs): President Donald Trump on Wednesday dropped a U.S. commitment to a twostate solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the longstanding bedrock of Washington’s Middle East policy, even as he urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to curb settlement construction.

In the first face-to-face meeting between the two leaders since Trump’s victory in the 2016 election, the Republican president backed away from a U.S. embrace of the eventual creation of a Palestinian state, upending a position taken by successive administrations and the international community.

“I’m looking at two states and one state, and I like the one both parties like,” Trump told a joint news conference with Netanyahu. “I can live with either one.”

Trump vowed to work toward a peace deal between Israel and Pales-

tinians but said it would require compromise on both sides, leaving it up to the parties themselves ultimately to decide on the terms of any agreement.

But he offered no new prescription for achieving an accord that has eluded so many of his predecessors, and Palestinian anger over his abandonment of their goal of statehood could scrap any chance of coaxing them back to the negotiating table. Dropping a bombshell on Netanyahu as they faced reporters just before sitting down for talks, Trump told him: “I’d like to see you hold back on settlements for a little bit.”

The right-wing Israeli leader appeared momentarily startled. It was a rare concession sought

by Trump as the two leaders tried to set a new positive tone after eight years of friction under Trump’s Democratic predecessor, President Barack Obama.

Netanyahu insisted that Jewish settlements were

“not the core of the conflict” and made no public commitment to reduce settlement building in the occupied West Bank. He later told reporters traveling with him that he hoped to “reach an understanding” with Trump on settlements.

Trump echoed Netanyahu’s calls for Palestinians to recognize Israel as a Jewish state – something they have refused to do – and to halt incitement against Israelis.

But even as Trump promised to pursue peace, saying “it might be a bigger and better deal than people in this room even understand,” he made no effort to address the deep distrust and other obstacles that have prevented any substantive negotiations since 2014.

Setting an initially chummy tone, Trump greeted Netanyahu on a red carpet rolled out to the White House driveway. The two leaders smiled, shook hands and chatted amiably before heading inside, accompanied by first lady

Melania Trump and Netanyahu’s wife, Sara.

Among the questions that figured prominently on the agenda was the future of the two-state solution – the idea of creating a Palestine living peacefully alongside Israel.

Foreshadowing Trump’s policy shift, a senior White House official said on Tuesday that peace did not necessarily have to entail Palestinian statehood. Palestinians responded by warning Trump that such a move would seriously damage U.S. credibility.

Giving a meandering response to a question on the issue, Trump suggested that he could abide by whatever path the two sides decided. “I’m happy with the one they like the best,” he said. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas seized on Trump’s settlements comment to demand a complete halt to such building - which Palestinians see as meant to deny them a viable state - and said he remained

US President Donald Trump (R) greets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a joint news conference at the White House in Washington on February 15. (REUTERS Photo)

committed to “the two-state solution and to international law.”

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned against abandoning the idea of a sovereign Palestinian state alongside Israel, saying there was “no alternative.”

Netanyahu commit-

ted, with conditions, to the two-state goal in a speech in 2009 and has broadly reiterated the aim since.

But he has also spoken of a “state minus” option, suggesting he could offer the Palestinians deep-seated autonomy and the trappings of statehood without full sovereignty.

At the news conference, he never ruled out a two-state solution, but also made it sound like an almost impossible ideal. He said it would require preconditions, including the Palestinians’ recognition of Israel as a Jewish state and Israel’s retaining security control “in the area west of the Jordan River” -

which would encompass all of the West Bank.

Netanyahu and Trump shared several warm handshakes during the news conference, especially after Trump’s opening remarks, when he said the United States was Israel’s greatest friend. But Trump also managed to catch Netanyahu off guard, at one point saying that if a solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict was going to be reached “both sides will have to make compromises.” The president then turned to Netanyahu and said: “You know that, right?” Netanyahu replied with a chuckle, “Both sides.”

Martin Indyk, a former Middle East negotiator under Obama and now at the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington, said of the possibility that Washington might ditch its support for an independent Palestinian nation, “It’s another nail in the coffin of the peace process, which already had a lot of nails in it.”

10

FriDAY 17•02•2017

public discourse

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

Aretha Franklin Was Wrong: all women are really asking, “is for a little P.O.W.E.R.”

T

Robert A. Silverstein

here is an article by Mar Longkumer, titled, “Imported Neo Feminism Vs Logic.” As an American who has spent a lifetime immersed in active politics and political issues, I feel that I must address a couple of points made by the author in his article. It is a bit presumptuous for me, as a male, to talk on behalf of women, but I have substantial experience with the feminist movement in America, and Naga women are free to comment on my article if it is published, so I will move forward with my comments.

First, I want to say that I agree with much of what the author says about the movement of political correctness in America, and I also agree with him that, “this new brand of Leftist politics is just as intolerant and irrational as the ones on the extreme Right.” But the author has a certain misunderstanding of the feminist movement which manifests itself in his article.

The author states, “No doubt there are aspects of gender inequality in the Naga customary tradition but the fact is that the vast majority of Naga Men by and large love and respect their women and children as in any other modern progressive societies; as is demonstrated by the majority of the women who are against reservation.”

There are a couple of observations I have about the above sentence. First, that “the majority of women…are against reservation,” presuming the accuracy of that statement, proves little. Most people are afraid of any change in the status quo, and women in a tribal society have reason to be afraid, as tribal society provides a role for them that goes back hundreds of years, as customary law mandates.

They may also feel anxious, if not terrified, about taking a political position opposed by their husbands.

Secondly, and the main point I want to make in this article, is that the fact “Naga Men by and large love and respect their women and children,”

misses the whole point. The Indian Constitution, sections 243T, 14, and 15 have nothing to do with “love and respect;” They concern only power.

The condescending words, “Naga Men by and large love and respect women and children,” would obviously manifest its condescension if the words were switched around: “Naga Women by and large love and respect men and children.”

I’m reminded of the Orthodox members of my own Jewish religion, where women are generally confined to the home. The Orthodox Jewish men, when confronted with accusations of treating their wives as secondclass citizens, retort that, in the home, the women are the Queen. They are in charge of everything there, from the cooking and cleaning to the critical role of raising the children.

But the Orthodox men, deliberately in my view, fail to mention that the issue is not the importance of the duties of someone raising a family, but the freedom one has to choose to play

I

Kohima

f you see thing as it actually is, you will see it that way and if you want to see the way you want it, you will also see it that way. What 9 or 8 or 7 actually is, you from opposite side can see it as 6 or B or L and draw your conclusion from that angle. In this manner Art 371A is being viewed by people from different perspective, that within legal fraternity, within successive government and unavoidably so within laypersons. Art 371A is no less a mini-constitution of Nagaland, therefore this article essentially should be viewed from Naga perspective rather than from un-Naga or non-Naga perspective. Why, because in prevailing situation what may be legally right may turn to be socially, politically wrong for us.

One does not need to be a legal man/woman to understand the content and spirit of Article 371A, for the fact that this very article is the upshot of a political agreement and therefore it cannot and should not be interpreted strictly in legal term without also equally considering the historical and political connection, then and now. Art 371A, particularly (I) (a) (i) to (iv) is one amongst what Naga leaders wanted from day one of negotiation and accordingly inserted and protected by the Constitution; neither is it gifted to us nor is it general provision for all. After 50 years of adoption and successful implementation, it will be very stupid and suicidal for present or future generation to doubt the intent of the article or the author. The other way round, this article is a constitutional restriction put against potential constitutional or Parliament’s infringement on the given supremacy of Art 371A. And until and unless Nagaland Assembly opens its door, no constitutional provision in the like of Art 243T or act of Parliament or court can forcibly come inside. But problem of current nature started when successive Assembly oft and on opened the sealed door without visualizing or least consideration of dangerous intrusive forces.

Still bigger problem is false assumption and submission that there is a higher authority above State Assembly to decide or act on the special provisions otherwise guaranteed by Art 371A. For quite some time women activists & supporters are questioning their counterparts how and in what manner 33% reservation for women is infringing Art 371A and alongwith state government they are claiming that Art 243T is a constitutional provision, for that matter a constitutional right guaranteed to all women. Fine. Indeed whether or not women participation in elective bodies violates customary law needs debate but I do not believe in such violation. Nonetheless, whether or not 33% reservation of Art 243T infringes the special provision of Art 371A is highly questionable and I, on the contrary believe there is such infringement for reasons mentioned below. My argument is based on the contention made by JACWR/NMA and confusion created by successive Assembly and state government.

1. NMA’s contention that “reservation for women in local and urban decision making bodies of the Panchayati Raj and Municipalities has been guaranteed through the 73rd and 74th Amendment of the Indian Constitution which supersedes Article 371(a)” (Ref: Memorandum submitted to CM on 19/3/12) also became JACWR’s main contention in their Special Leave Petition. Until and unless JACWR/NMA justify how exactly 73rd and 74th Amendment... supersede or override Art 371A, how can they possibly refute the charge that 33% reservation of Art 243T is infringing Art 371A? 2. Successive State Assembly adopted resolution and again revoked same resolution, respectively on 22 Sept. 2012 and on 24 Nov 2016 on conflicting ground. Yet state government is not in a position to clarify, apart from explaining the sequence, how exactly 33% reservation of Art 243T infringed Art 371A by 2012 and then how exactly the former no longer infringes the latter by 2016. Until and unless state government logically and independently resolves this position of infringement or not-infringement, how can state government in the midst of this confusion, decide to seek extra constitutional ordinance at the risk of endangering Art 371A? Any educated person should be able to understand the meaning of ‘Notwithstanding’, the first word used in Art 371A; else synonymous words are nevertheless, however, even so, still etc. A Dictionary defines the word “The particular thing mentioned has no effect on the situation that you are describing although people might expect it to”. Rephrasing it to our context, ‘the particular thing mentioned (Art 243T) has no effect on the situation that you are describing (special provision of Art 371A) although people might expect it to’ (I repeat, although people might expect it to). Hence, “Notwithstanding anything in this Constitution” implies “Notwithstanding Art 243T in this Constitution”. Also it does not say, Notwithstanding anything IN THIS ARTICLE; it says, Notwithstanding anything IN THIS CONSTITUTION (the constitution in entirety, including Art 243T). Special Provision of Art 371A cannot be interpreted in the context of general provision of Art 243T or the like; rather the latter has to be interpreted in the context of the former. Where there is clash of pro-

vision, definitely special provision will prevail over common provision, guaranteed provision over general provision. That is a common sense Assembly, state government and we, the people should be able to apply in mind and in act.

No act of Parliament in respect of- (i) (ii), (iii) (iv) “shall apply to the State of Nagaland unless the Legislative Assembly of Nagaland by a resolution so decides” need no further explanation. UNLESS Assembly adopt or pass a resolution, no act/law of Parliament relating to or infringing special provisions mentioned under Art 371A will be effective in the State. And UNLESS Assembly adopt or pass such resolution, court cannot interpret WHAT IS NOT THERE. Court comes into picture once a resolution or act is challenged. In present circumstances whether resolution was adopted earlier, revoked later or revived in future, Assembly has opened Pandora box for the court to decide the merit or demerit of the case. Maybe the worst is yet to come; maybe JACWR/NMA can save it in time. As for Assembly so long as resolution is not adopted or resolution is passed against, we are safe but when resolution is adopted in favour or protective resolution like that of 22 Sept 2012 is revoked, we are unsafe.

As for ULB, Seventh Scheduled List II – State List, No. 5 is very clear. Local government is a subject matter of state government whereby the constitution and powers of municipal corporations/bodies and other local authorities for the purpose of local self-government or village administration are left to the state government. Given this fact state government is also empowered over ULB election process, thus last date of nomination for the election was extended for another two days and eventually the whole election process was also declared null and void on polling day itself.

To this extend the competency and authority of state government is not questioned but the decision to approach central government for exemption from Part IXA is a dangerous venture from our side and also a golden opportunity for adversaries far and near, to demand repeal of provision like 370 or 371A. We also have understanding problem. Everybody talks of Art 371A but very few know about it and many feel that others know much better about the special provision than we do. Apparently with this assumption some people including elected members, influential members and interest groups ventured elsewhere seeking reverse opinion, support and even verdict precisely to rationalize or legitimize the interest of smaller section over the interest of larger Naga.

In other words, how Art 371A should not become an obstruction to sectional interest. So JACWR/NMA remains stuck to their guns that Art 243 & 243T supersede/override Art 371A and state government continues to claim that Art 243T is mandatory and therefore revocation of 2012 Assembly Resolution was the best thing done to protect Art 371A. People at large certainly do not know much but at least they do understand that Art 371A cannot be superseded by 33% reservation of Art 243T. The people are also not so naive to believe that 2012 protective resolution was removed in order to protect Art 371A. In disregard of strong constitutional provision Assembly has succumbed to interpretation of its own power by other authority and in disregard of clear provision in Seventh Scheduled state government has readied to accept extra constitutional ordinance from above. Therefore, state tribal hohos are out in the street to secure Art 371A from being challenged

by JACWR/NMA in court and bartered left and right by state government. If government can be so adamant and arrogant as it is today, it should similarly be courageous enough to confront any court to defend our guaranteed rights. Jallikattu uprising in Tamil Nadu should be eye opener to everyone; Tamilian say, ‘tradition supreme over court interpretation’.

And they did won. Theirs is a game, ours is everything. So what problem is there for Naga people?

Finally, it is most unfortunate that NPF is desperately trying to politicise the people’s protest as driven by some vested interest. Actually what can be more ridiculous than this suspicion and allegation, or are they trying to insinuate that all state tribal hoho leaders and members are compromised and have abandoned NPF for good? Their respective tribal body is on protest and some NPF leaders and workers are openly questioning and challenging their Hoho’s decision every day, as if they are aliens living outside their tribal community. The way we see thing now, tribal hohos are representing the whole- Art 371A while NPF, in support of government is representing the part- Art 243T and exactly like present constitutional clash NPF is trying to supersede tribal hohos. It is interesting, rather hilarious that NPF which used to cockcrow Naga nationalism and regionalism in the past is openly cockcrowing nationalism in Indian context and constitutionalism today, actually every morning.

Somebody sarcastically mentioned ‘never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups’. If so, it is better to be stupid and save your birthright than be smart and sell your birthright. And if not today, tomorrow government will certainly witness that the power of the people is stronger than the people in power. So it may be best to accept reality before committing further futile sacrifice than after committing futile sacrifice.

community has in a fair manner, not with the power all in the hands of the white community.

Finally, the author states, “And it is here that the feminists and the social justice warriors in their hysterical rage have failed to address the issue of 33% with the intellectual honesty and actively discouraged the voices of concerns for the integrity of Article 371 (A) with accusations. One can be sure that the thousands of decent Nagas who just didn’t give a damn about what the feminists …had to say, along with the bigoted and chauvinistic Nagas rose up to fight for the sanctity of Article 371 (A).”

The author loses me with this last paragraph of his article, above, where he seems to imply that the “hysterical rage” is a quality only the women possessed, fighting for equal representation on ULBs, and the men fighting them who had a monopoly on “the intellectual honesty….”

It was not the women who “actively discouraged the voices of concerns

for the integrity of Article 371 (A),” but the men who threatened, intimidated, and used violence to discourage women from running for office on February 1st, all such activities by the men illegal, by the way, and it was the women who did things legally, going to court, a choice the men had and chose not to use.

The women were the intellectually honest ones in this battle, the men the intellectually dishonest ones. The women admitted that they were fighting for power, a power legitimized by the Indian Parliament with the passage of 243T, while the men disguised their fight to maintain complete power on all elective bodies by claiming their deep respect for tribal customary law, a fight obviously, in their view, worth bringing down not just the state government but bringing down the state itself.

Some women may seem hysterical, but the actions of the men are the cause of the criminality and chaos in the state.

Imported Neo Feminism Vs Logic

The issue is FOR Art 371A, NOT against women’s election Vaprumu Demo

that role. The Orthodox Jewish women play that role, and no doubt do not complain about it, as many Naga women do not complain about their role under customary law.

But 243T is for the women who are not in favor of the status quo. Going back to my Orthodox Jewish brethren, I have never heard one Orthodox Jew volunteering to be the King of his household. He is out in the business or professional world, doing what he wants. Could he choose to be the King of his household, giving the Queen the freedom to go out into the business or professional world? I presume he could. But he is the one with the power to choose, not her.

The issue related to all struggles for freedom is never about respect or love; it’s about the power to choose. In the long struggle in America for African-Americans to obtain equality in the fight for jobs, education, medical care, and more, the issue has never been about love and respect; it’s about the power to obtain what the white

Mar Longkumer

H

Purana Bazar

ow does an issue (ULB Imbroglio) that is pretty much a straight forward case (which is preservation of Article 371A), be misconstrued so wrongly by some feminist, women leaders, and intellectuals of our society; encouraged and sympathized by equally biased social justice warriors and the Left media from the mainland and other Northeastern states, who wants or can only see through the prism of misogyny and victimization of women and this of course makes a great story except for one thing, it’s just not true. Facts don’t matter to them apparently; what matters more is their Worldview being confirmed.

While it’s true that women movement have achieved many important milestones, it is also true that the rage and bitterness in women’s movement seems to be going too far, as evident from the incident where the innocuous comment of Hollywood actor Steve Martin on tweeter praising actress Carrie Fisher on her beauty and THEN on her wits and intelligence, created quite a stir that he was forced to take it down. The feminists and politically correct social justice warriors went berserk; it was just unacceptable to these raging minds that an actor of his stature wasn’t feminist or sensitive enough to notice her wits and intelligence FIRST! The point being made is that such extreme far Left, deluded Western feminism does exist and is unfortunately being imported and these are the stuffs that are failing the progressives and liberals; and this new brand of Leftist politics is just as intolerant and irrational as the ones on the extreme Right.

The ULB issues aired on national news television/print media not only got the reason for the conflict wrong but also painted a false image, that of gender apartheid in Naga society. No doubt there are aspects of gender inequality in the Naga customary tradition but the fact is

that the vast majority of Naga Men by and large love and respect their women and children as in any other modern progressive societies; as is demonstrated by the majority of the women who are against reservation. Some of the women leaders may already be in the reckoning to win national awards for their ‘bravery’ in their fight for women rights in a ‘dangerous and hostile environment’ like Nagaland, and being patted by their whacky far Left counter parts in other states and even outside the country but the fact is does this really tell the story of our Naga society?

I suspect that the failure to address the issue of ULB controversy earlier was due to the sheer inability to have a dispassionate discourse on the issue. The pressure to be politically correct in this age of neo-feminism means that any disagreement to the ULB election, one stood a chance of being accused of chauvinism, primitive-minded, non-progressive and anti-women, and this perhaps is one of the reasons for the lack of enthusiasm to have a serious dialogue on the issue of ULB in the first place.

If one could draw an analogy of the new brand of Left politics and political correctness and its lack of capacity for intellectual honesty and its consequences, then it would be the recent American presidential election. Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party in their zest to be politically correct just couldn’t say what people by the millions in America felt, such as, their disgust with about Black/Brown identity politics vis-a-vis White identity politics peddled by the Left and Democrats, and the clear and present danger with Islamic terrorism and the Left inability to name it. Clinton, right after the aftermath of the Orlando massacre talked only about gun control and warned about rise of Islamophobia when America had just suffered atrocities at the hands of Islamic terrorism.

Added to these, her intention to increase Syrian refugees in the country by 550% led to her downfall. The new brand of Left politics and political correctness

only exasperated the vast majority of the Americans who finally voted for Donald Trump. The vast majority of these people were not motivated by racism. There were people who voted for Obama twice (2008 & 2012 elections) who voted for Trump and therefore racism cannot be the best explanation for why Trump won the elections. A vast majority of people who saw Trump’s flaws just didn’t care; all they were concerned was about national security, economy, and terrorism, so these people along with the racists all voted for Trump.

The new brand of Left politics and political correctness has led to the emergence of “Safe Spaces” (initially started at university campuses to protect people from being exposed to ideas that do not conform to their Worldview). These Safe Spaces are now growing in many places in America, making it virtually impossible to have serious discourses on contentious issues like immigration, terrorism, security of the society, and concerns for women rights in the Muslim community without being BRANDED as one thing or the other.

Similarly here in Nagaland, the ever progressive feminist and social justice warriors were quick to jump to the conclusion that the Naga men-folk opposition to the ULB election had nothing to do with the concerns for the preservation of Article 371(A), but only saw it as an opposition to empowerment of women, and then goes on the offensive mode against the men-folk with charges of sexism, bigotry, toxic masculinity, chauvinism and patriarchy. And it is here that the feminist and the social justice warriors in their hysterical rage have failed to address the issue of 33% with intellectual honesty and actively discouraged the voicing of concerns for the integrity of Article 371(A) with accusations. One can be sure that the thousands of decent Nagas who just didn’t give a damn about what the feminist and far Leftist elements had to say, along with bigoted and chauvinistic Nagas rose up to fight for the sanctity of Article 371(A).

ULB is political battle not gender issue LemwangChuhwanglim

U

Researcher & Activist

LB is neither a beginning nor an end to gender injustice if gender injustice exists in the Naga society and most significantly it is not relevant to gender issue. ULB is not the liberator of gender injustice. Being modernized and educated is not imitating the other group/ person/organization.It is more of something that he/she has well knowledge about differences, contrasting, compelling and supporting in different issues and adapt contextual strategy than imposing irrelevant theory. Women who had codified the current ULB as gender issuehave brought the image of common women into lack of differentiating between politics and gender issue.

A Naga female social media blogger says “ULB may benefit the candidates in many ways but it will not reach the women in the grassroots level in any means.

Those who are fighting for the ULB are for personal interest”. Politically, this statement is absolutely true because; in politics no gender is invincible from corruption. For instance, the current female chief minister of Tamil Nadu, who represents women of the country as an image of honesty, sincerity and so on, has strongly proven that no gender is escapable from corruption in politics. Reflecting on women in politics, Naga women who have misinterpreted the ULB as gender injustice to feminists groups in different parts of the world need to bring a quick restoration of the image of the Naga men and women from what has been misinterpreted. Individual Naga women, who had misinterpreted ULB as gender issue than politics, may give any example to the Nagas ofany female in politics that has brought gender justice in any society.

In the history of the Nagas, women remain ignorance to politics not because they are not given opportunity, but they willingly support own husband for they know the benefits through husband and

this is indicated among many women of the male politicians. If ‘Wannabe feminist’ wants to know why the wives of every politician do not contest in election, they must interview each of them and bring it to the common knowledge of the findings.

‘Wannabe Feminist’needs to know the concept of gender justice deeper than the ULB which plays with gender issue. Gender issue/justice is not women against men or vis-e-vis, it is more of any human being to obtain individual rights under certain social norms and system. Again, ‘rights’ here is not everything an individual claims as authentic. Every individual lives within certain long time social system and culture and no one can live out of it or if he/she does not live under a common social norm, he/she has less place to live anywhere in this world.

If few ‘Wannabe feminist’ in the Naga society aim to be politicians, to equalize the leadership role in the society, it is recommendable to contest from own constituency in the common political battle but not through such reservation which is a weak plat form that indicates weaker being. There are non-governmental organizations somewhere like Change. org, showing placard written “SERVING NAGA MEN SINCE TIME IMMEMORIAL. NOW IT’S TIME FOR GENDER JUSTICE. NO BUTS” is the most misleading slogan. Such slogan needs to be questioned seriously by the Nagas in general to the extent of finding the perpetrators behind it. Such organization lacks proper knowledge about the way of lives of the Naga men and women since the origin of the Naga indigenous community. Had Naga men and women not shared equal responsibilities according to consensus understanding based on their abilities, Naga society would remain a war zone between men and women but it is not and this itself shows the role of women and men in different leadership fields.

The current ULB issue, which is a pinhole issue, should not legitimize to gender injustice. Naga ‘Wannabe feminist’ may construe this peaceful history of men

and women living together peacefully for so long as, men suppressed women’s voice, therefore, no conflict emanated between men and women. It is not what ‘Wannabe feminist’ think today about equality, based on the western world theories. If only ‘wannabe feminist’ aim for equality and justice, one of the positive contributions of the ‘wannabe feminist’ is to avoid plucking raw food and obliterate adapting non-contextual ideas from else.

The entire problem in the current ULB political battle is the impatience and insufficient knowledge of few women ‘wannabe feminist’ who think that ULB which is a political battle is gender issue.

Any state, regional, nation and international organization going for signature campaign against the Naga society in the name of gender injustice, in political battle like ULB, may have to rethink again of their little knowledge about the entire history of Nagas loving community with peace and harmony between men and women. Legitimizing ULB, the political battle, as gender injustice by any organization, activists and individual is exposing own foolishness and weaknesses in the field of respective profession, which only mortifies the image of oneself and group. The current meaningless step of the few personal interest ‘wannabe feminist’ is a great mistake, assuming that support from the outside world would fulfill their personal interest in politics by using gender issue as a tool. In fact, these few women are manipulating the name of the entire innocent women.

Most importantly, few women, with personal interest fighting for the ULB do not represent the entire women of the Nagas and it is recommendable not to represent as the entire women on media and so on.

It is predictable that even if these women win the ULB election, there will be 90% women who would not receive even .01% of the benefits of the winner but still claims that it will bring gender equality rather than political stability and social transformation in large.

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.

Friday 17•02•2017

EntErtainmEnt

join hands with

T

he popular Smurf characters have been brought on board by United Nations to encourage children, young people and adults to make the world happier, more peaceful, equitable and healthy, via a campaign. The 'Small Smurfs Big Goals' campaign is designed to encourage everyone to learn about and support the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, which were agreed on by all 193 membercountries of the United Nations in 2015, read an official statement.

It begins with the launch of a video inspiring viewers to champion the goals, which include ending extreme poverty, protecting the planet and giving everyone the chance to

C

arlos Santana landed in a soup after criticizing singer Beyonce Knowles. The legendary musician says his comment was taken out of context. Following the Grammy Awards which saw Adele winning the most coveted Album of the Year, the guitarist praised

the British star.

"I think Adele won because she can sing, sing," he said. "With all respect to our sister Beyonce, Beyonce is very beautiful to look at and it's more like modelling kind of music - music to model a dress she's not a singer singer, with all respect to her."

UN

enjoy peace and prosperity.

Launched on Wednesday by the United Nations, Unicef, and the United Nations Foundation, public can also join Team Smurfs by visiting the Smurfs official website and contribute in different ways.

"The entertainment industry moves the hearts and minds of people of all ages, and the UN thanks our friends at Sony Pictures Animation and the Smurfs for this creative effort to mobilise support for the Sustainable Development Goals," said Maher Nasser, Director of the Outreach Division, United Nations Department of Public Information.

"We hope this campaign will motivate millions of young people and

Carlos regrets saying Amitabh completes Beyonce 48 years in isn't Bollywood singer M As he received a lot of backlash, Santana apologized on Facebook: "I would like to clarify a comment that was reported when I was doing an interview for some upcoming shows in Australia and New Zealand. My intent was to congratulate Adele on her amazing night at the

Grammies. My comment about Beyonce was regretfully taken out of context."

Santana added that he has utmost respect for Beyonce as an artiste and a person. "She deserves all the accolades that come her way. I wish Beyonce and her family all the best."

Source: IANS

egastar Amitabh Bachchan has completed over four decades of his cinematic journey and says he became an "official entrant" in Bollywood on February 15, 1969. The 74-yearold on Wednesday night wrote on his blog: "There is an avalanche of events related to this date - the 15th of February. On this date in

1969... I became an official entrant to the film industry, by signing my very first film, 'Saat Hindustani'."

The "Piku" star shared a series of black and white photographs from the film's set as well. In his over fourdecade journey in Bollywood, Big B worked in over 100 films and was feted with Padma Shri in 1984, the Padma Bhushan in 2001 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2015

their families to do their part to end poverty, reduce inequality, and protect our planet - three key aspects that will lead to the wellbeing and happiness of all people," Nasser added.

Team Smurfs will rally behind the goals through to the International Day of Happiness on March 20, when the campaign will culminate in a celebration at UN headquarters in New York to mark the occasion.

This year, the International Day of Happiness will highlight the Sustainable Development Goals as building blocks of happiness. Voice actors from the upcoming animated movie "Smurfs: The Lost Village" will attend to honour youth and children, who have played a role in raising awareness of the Sustain-

A

fter months of speculation, it is confirmed that Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan will soon host the Hindi version of popular international show TED Talks. Star India will air the Indian version - TED Talks India: Nayi Soch.

To be created in partnership with nonprofit TED, the deal marks the first time TED is collaborating with a major network and star to produce a TV series featuring original TED Talks in a language other than English. Talking about the new collaboration, Star India chairman and CEO Uday Shankar said in a press release, “At Star, we have always believed in pushing the boundaries with new ideas, creativity and fresh thinking. Nobody reflects this belief more than TED, and we are thrilled to collaborate with them in bringing the power of ideas to our audiences with TED

Talks India: Nayi Soch. In an age of high volatility the role of ideas to fuel positive change cannot be overstated. We are delighted to have Shah Rukh Khan share our vision and lend his charisma to this exciting endeavour.”

“Star India’s legacy of using television as an instrument of social change, and TED’s unequivocal drive to showcase simple but unique ideas in an effort to spark debate and conversation are a very powerful combination. I believe TED Talks India: Nayi Soch will inspire many minds across India. It is a concept I connected with instantly, as I believe that the media is perhaps the single most powerful vehicle to inspire change,” SRK said in a press statement. The show is likely to be launched this year. Further details are awaited.

Source: Hindustan Times

Louisa Johnson unveiled as the face of L'Oreal's Colorista

ReviSed TiCKeT RaTeS (Silver) : `.120 (Gold) : `. 200 (Recliner) : `. 400

for his contribution to arts.

The government of France honoured him with its highest civilian honour, Knight of the Legion of Honour, in 2007 for his exceptional career in the world of cinema and beyond.

Amitabh has worked in hits like "Bombay to Goa", "Zanjeer", "Abhimaan", "Namak Haraam", "Sholay", "Agneepath" and "Deewar".

Source: IANS

S

Deepika Padukone, who has made her presence felt globally, looked smashing as she recently attended the world renowned fashion designer Michael Kors Show at the ongoing New York Fashion Week. The Mast of Bollywood chose a navy blue dress from Kors' Spring 2017 collection and paired it with a high neck white top. Her open, side parted hair added grace to her look. (Source: ANI)

he's tried a variety of different hair styles and colours since finding fame as the winner of the X Factor back in 2015.

And Louisa Johnson was at it again as she showed off her new aqua hairdo on Wednesday. The 19-yearold singer cut a striking figure as she was unveiled as the new face of L'Oreal's Colorista brand.

Louisa was joined by fellow L'Oreal ambassador Barbara Palvin who sported an equally distinctive pink streaky hairstyle. 'I love the fact you can change your hair colour really easily with this product,' said Louisa. 'I changed my own hair colour to blue myself this morning.' Louisa also gave an exclusive preview performance of her soon-

to-be released single, Best Behaviour, due for release on March 10.

Recently speaking about the song, the Essex born beauty revealed: 'Best Behaviour has a different sound to Tears and So Good, it's more electronic, but it's still definitely me. 'I don't just like one style of music, so I didn't want an album where every song sounded the same. I wanted to mix it up.

However, while the talented beauty revealed she's solidified her foundation in the business, she realises it'll take hard work to rise to the top: 'I've got to where I wanted to be five years ago, but I'm nowhere near where I want to be five years from now. 'I’ve still got a long way to go, but

I’m going to have the time of my life getting there,' she concluded. The competition winner's new track is written by TMS, Danny Parker and TMS - the latter of which recently wrote Little Mix's smash hit Touch.

Source: Mail Online

Karlie Kloss

K

10:00 aM, 02:50 PM 07:50 PM

12:30 PM & 05:30 PM

Hillstar

apologises for geishathemed vogue shoot

arlie Kloss has apologised for taking part in a Japanese geisha-themed photoshoot for US Vogue magazine.

The 24-year-old model received backlash after images from the shoot, which show her dressed in traditional geisha clothing, appeared online and she took to social media to say sorry for ''participating in a shoot that was not culturally sensitive''.

Karlie wrote: ''These images appropriate a culture that is not my own and I am truly sorry for participating in a shoot that was not culturally sensitive. ''My goal is, and always will be, to empower and inspire women. I will ensure my future shoots and projects reflect that mission.'' The shoot appears in the March issue of the

Source: IANS

Now ShowiNg

Shah Rukh Khan to host TED Talks India: Nayi Soch

C M Y K

able Development Goals.

"We know that children and young people are some of the world's most passionate advocates on issues that matter to them the most. We must continue to find new ways to empower them to help achieve a world free from inequality and injustice for every child.

This campaign will give children and young people the platform they need to have their voices heard," Paloma Escudero, Unicef Director of Communications, said. Produced

by Sony Pictures Animation, "Smurfs: The Lost Village"will release in India on April 21.

NOW SHOWING Jolly ll.B 2

magazine, which is also its Diversity issue.

This is not the first time Karlie has been accused of cultural appropriation. In 2012, she was blasted for wearing a Native American headdress during the Victoria's Secret fashion show.

Karlie said at the time: ''I am deeply sorry if what I wore during the VS Show offended anyone. I support VS's decision to remove the outfit from the broadcast.''

Victoria's Secret said: ''We are sorry that the American Indian headdress replica used in our recent fashion show has upset individuals. We sincerely apologise as we absolutely had no intention to offend anyone. Out of respect, we will not be including the outfit in any broadcast, marketing materials nor in any other way.''

Source: Contactmusic

11:00 AM | 05:00 PM

The Ghazi aTTack

02:00 PM | 08:00 PM

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FriDAY 17•02•2017

SPORTS

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

Regal Real fight back to beat Napoli

C M Y K

MaDriD, FeBruary 16 (reuTerS): Casemiro's stunning volley crowned a superb display from Real Madrid, who fought back to beat Napoli 3-1 at the Bernabeu in the first leg of their Champions League last 16 tie on Wednesday.

The Brazilian midfielder thundered a spectacular right-foot shot into the net early in the second half to complete Real's comeback, adding to efforts either side of halftime from Karim Benzema and Toni Kroos.

Napoli, the top scorers in Serie A, grabbed an early goal when Lorenzo Insigne spotted keeper Keylor Navas out of position to curl the ball home from distance, but when Real clicked into gear they created chances at will.

Holders Real, who are chasing a 12th European title and eying a seventh straight quarter-final appearance, will travel to Naples for the return leg on March 7.

"We’ll go there to a difficult ground where we’ll suffer and it’s still an open game," Real coach Zinedine Zidane told reporters.

"We need to go there and finish it off with our 3-1 advantage.”

Real were defending an enviable home record in the Champions League, having gone 11 games undefeated at the Bernabeu, but were facing a Napoli side in form, unbeaten in their last 18 matches in all competitions.

The hosts were at the throats of their opponents within moments of the kickoff as Benzema forced a reflex save from Pepe Reina with barely 20

Bayern humiliate clueless Arsenal

seconds on the clock.

At that point it looked like it could be a long evening for Napoli, but the Italians were in no mood to lie down and took the lead to cap a frenetic opening after eight minutes.

Insigne was fed through by Marek Hamsik and spotted Real keeper Navas out of position. Quick as a flash and with two defenders closing in, he bent a shot into the corner from 35 metres.

The lead lasted 10 minutes as Real drew level when Dani Carvajal's arrowed cross was headed powerfully into the net

by Benzema, his 51st Champions League goal, lifting him into fifth on the all-time scorers list.

The remainder of the half was spent mainly in Napoli territory as Real continued to press, with Cristiano Ronaldo blasting over after being set free by Luka Modric and Benzema clipping the outside of the post when through on goal.

Their dominance, however, was rewarded four minutes after the restart as Ronaldo skipped to the byline and pulled it back for Kroos on the edge of the box to sidefoot calmly past Reina.

Four minutes later Casemiro took the game, and perhaps the tie, away from Napoli with a stunning right-foot volley from 25 metres that left Reina flailing.

"We faced the best team in the world, but it's a pity that we made so many mistakes with the ball because we usually don't do that," said Napoli coach Maurizio Sarri.

"The return leg? We will try to win 2-0, but I don't think Madrid would agree with that."

Berlin, FeBruary 16 (ianS): FC Bayern Munich thrashed Arsenal 5-1 after a dominating performance saw them pump in four second half goals in the fist leg of their UEFA Champions League pre-quarterfinal tie here.

Arsenal were only able to hold the pace in the first half on Wednesday as Bayern turned up after the restart to extend their Champions League winning record to 16 consecutive victories on home soil, reports Xinhua news agency.

The German giants had a bright start in front of 70,000 spectators as Arjen Robben broke the deadlock with just 11 minutes into the encounter.

The Dutchman had all the time and space to cut into the Arsenal penalty box from the right before unleashing a curling shot into the top corner at the far post.

Bayern controlled the proceedings but were unable to double the lead in the first half whereas Arsenal restored parity out of the blue when Alexis Sanchez tapped home the rebound following a blocked penalty in the 29th minute.

The visitors had even the opportunity to grab the lead just before the break but Mesut Oezil failed to overcome Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer from a promising position.

After the restart, Carlo Ancelotti's men increased the pressure and pressed Arsenal into the defence. The hosts' efforts paid off in the 53rd minute as Robert Lewandowski headed home Philipp Lahm's pinpoint cross across custodian David Ospina.

Bayern gained momentum and established a two-goal lead after Lewandowski's back-heel through ball found Thiago Alcantara, who tapped home into the bottom left corner three minutes later.

The hosts were not done with the scoring as Thiago wrapped up his brace after scoring the 4-1 with a deflected shot from the edge of the box before Thomas Mueller rounded off the 5-1 victory two minutes after his fielding in the 88th minute.

"We staged a compact performance and did not give them opportunities to score. The result is the most important thing but we showed our offensive qualities," Bayern manager Carlo Ancelotti said.

Bayern travel to London for the second leg of the Champions League last 16 on March 7.

Referee Clattenburg quits Premier League for Saudi Arabia Decision-making improved by 98.5 percent after DRS

lOnDOn, FeBruary 16 (reuTerS): The Premier League's most high-profile referee Mark Clattenburg is quitting to take up a position in Saudi Arabia, the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) said on Thursday.

"The PGMOL would like to wish Mark Clattenburg well as he prepares for his move to the Saudi Arabian Football Federation," it said in a statement.

British media reported that Clattenburg will replace Howard Webb, another former Premier

League referee, as head of refereeing at the Saudi Arabian Football Federation.

Clattenburg was seen in Saudi Arabia on Thusday.

The 41-year-old took charge of the Euro 2016 final, the Champions league final and the FA Cup final last season.

Clattenburg, who had previously said he would consider officiating in China, is expected to leave before the Premier league's next set of fixtures on Feb. 25.

He took charge of his first Football league game in 2000.

DuBai, FeBruary 16 (ianS): International Cricket Council (ICC) chief executive David Richardson on Thursday backed the Decision Review System (DRS), contending that decision-making in the current year has improved to 98.5 percent.

He also acknowledged that the global cricket body is also trying to include the sport at the Olympics.

"I am very proud of the elite panel of match officials and our targets for correct decision making this year currently stands at 94 percent rising to 98.5 percent after DRS," Richardson was quoted as saying by icc-cricket.com on Thursday.

"We also need to detervealed that the amount of elbow extension for all his off-spin deliveries was within the 15-degree level of tolerance permitted under the ICC regulations for BarCelOna, FeBruthe review of bowlers re- ary 16 (reuTerS): ported with suspected ille- Barcelona captain Angal bowling actions." dres Iniesta is putting on "The umpires are still at a brave face ahead of Sunliberty to report Samuels if day's home game against they believe he is display- strugglers Leganes in La ing a suspect action and Liga following his club's not reproducing the legal devastating Champions action from the reassess- League defeat at Paris ment. To assist the umpires, Saint Germain. they will be provided with Looking to at least pull images and video footage level with leaders Real Maof the bowler's remodelled drid in the Spanish title legal bowling action," the race, defending champistatement added. ons Barca must get over If Samuels is reported the shock of a 4-0 defeat in again, he will be required the first leg of their last-16 to undertake further analy- game in France. sis of his bowling action at "We have to get up, dust an ICC accredited testing ourselves off and in the centre. meantime not forget about the other competition that we're in," Iniesta told his club's website.

Barca are in the King's viously worked in this way Cup final against Deporton the European Champi- ivo Alaves, the side they onships," he said. hammered 6-0 in La Liga "We are used to it and it last week, and they are just works well, it makes it pos- a point adrift of Real, who sible for more countries to host Espanyol on Saturday. arrange (tournaments), and However, Real have two in that way it is positive." games in hand and they But there is likely to are also in a better frame of be opposition from fans' mind after a 3-1 win over groups, given the higher Napoli in the opening leg of cost involved in following their Champions League tie a team through different in Madrid on Wednesday. countries.

Every point in La Liga Joint hosting could also will be valuable for Barceraise security concerns. lona, who will be without Brazil's Maracana, suspended midfielder Serwhich staged the last World gio Busquets.

Cup final in 2014, has beBarca crashed in speccome unusable in recent tacular fashion at PSG, a months, sitting with rust- result that has put them in ing gates and with a badly danger of being knocked damaged playing area fol- out of the Champions lowing a dispute over repair League at the last-16 stage costs and redevelopment. for the first time since 2007.

W Indies' Samuels cleared to bowl in international cricket

DuBai, FeBruary 16 (ianS): West Indian allrounder Marlon Samuels was on Thursday cleared to bowl in international cricket after his action was found to be legal, the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced here.

The 36-year-old was last reported fo9r bowling action during the Galle Test against Sri Lanka in October 2015 and was subsequently suspended for 12 months in December 2015 after an independent assessment revealed he had employed an illegal bowling action for the second time in 24 months.

"The International Cricket Council (ICC) today announced that following remedial work and reassessment, the bowling action of West Indies

mine cricket's strategy in respect of participation in the Olympic Games. Is it something we will continue to explore in the first half of 2017 and if our members agree, they would like to pursue it, then that's when the real work for Olympic inclusion begins," he added.

The former South Africa wicketkeeper also revealed that in order to protect the integrity of the sport, the ICC will also introduce blood testing this year.

Protecting the integrity of the sport, is of fundamental importance to everyone here at the ICC," he said.

"We must continue to provide leadership and support in the global fight against corruption and we

will complete the implementation of all agreed recommendations made by the Integrity Working Party."

"But protecting the integrity of cricket goes beyond our Anti-Corruption unit and we must ensure that our anti-doping programme is as effective as possible. We will introduce blood testing in 2017 as part of our ongoing commitment to a drug free sport and will continue to maintain our World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) compliance," Richardson added.

The 57-year-old also stressed on taking the sport to new frontiers by creating more opportunities and increasing the competition in international cricket.

"We have recently ap-

pointed a new head of global development, Will Glenwright and he is in the process of developing a global growth strategy for the game that will be launched in the second half of the year," Richardson said.

"In addition to that we will focus on growing participants and fans in two emerging markets, the US and China with a feasibility study and market assessment currently underway in China."

"We will review the performance and merit based funding for our Associate and Affiliate members to ensure better growth and review our ICC High Performance Strategy," he concluded.

Stunned Barcelona turn focus back on La Liga

Marlon Samuels has been found to be legal, and the player can now resume bowling in international cricket," the ICC said in a statement.

"On January 29, Samuels underwent a reassessment of his bowling action at the National Cricket Performance Centre in Loughborough where it was re-

FIFA to encourage co-hosting for 2026 World Cup

ZuriCH, FeBruary 16 (reuTerS): The 2026 soccer World Cup could be split between up to four countries, FIFA President Gianni Infantino said on Thursday, announcing the organisation would encourage applications to cohost the tournament.

"We will encourage cohosting for the World Cup because we need FIFA to show we are reasonable and we have to think about sustainability long-term," Infantino said. "(We could) ...maybe bring together two, three, four countries who can jointly present a project with three, four, five stadiums each. We will certainly encourage it. Ideally the countries will be close to

each other."

His remarks could open the way to a joint bid from the United States, Canada and Mexico, which have already said they intend to hold discussions over the possibility.

At the end of last year Victor Montagliani, president of the Concacaf federation that the three countries belong to, said he expected formal discussions to start once "all the rules and regulations" related to the bid were announced.

Concern has been raised about the financial burden placed on a single tournament host, and the bad publicity generated by stadiums built and then abandoned after use.

The only time FIFA has previously sanctioned cohosting was in 2002 when Japan and South Korea staged a tournament that was widely heralded as a success.

The idea has taken off at the European Championship, with Belgium and the Netherlands co-hosting in 2000, Austria and Switzerland in 2008 and Poland and Ukraine in 2012. The next tournament in 2020 has been designated as Pan-European and is due to be staged in 13 cities in 13 counties.

Swedish FA chair Karl-Erik Nilsson quickly backed co-hosting for the World Cup too.

"It's a good idea, and Europe has of course pre-

Tuesday's defeat was the biggest humiliation of Barcelona boss Luis Enrique's coaching career.

"There's half the tie to go and I won't lose hope, even though it will take a heroic comeback," Luis Enrique told reporters.

Leganes, winless since Nov. 21, are just one place, and two points, clear of the relegation zone.

European champions

Real go up against an Espanyol side who won three in a row before Sunday's home defeat to Real Sociedad.

French forward Karim Benzema has an extra bounce in his step after ending his month-long goal drought when he ignited Real's comeback against Napoli with his fifth goal of the competition this season.

"We're all very happy because we put in a good

performance and we're now looking to continue in this vein in La Liga," Benzema told his club's website.

Real coach Zinedine Zidane could include Gareth Bale in the squad after the Welsh forward recovered from an ankle injury sustained in November.

On Saturday, third-place Sevilla host Eibar while Atletico, who are fourth, play at Sporting Gijon.

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