July 9th, 2017

C M Y K

www.morungexpress.com

SunDAY • JulY 09 • 2017

DIMAPUR • Vol. XII • Issue 186• 12 PAGes • 5

T H e

ESTD. 2005

P o W e R

o F

T R u T H

Self-control is the chief element in self-respect and self-respect is the chief element in courage — Thucydides Russia didn’t meddle in US election, Putin tells Trump

MLA Tokheho graces Tuluni at Dimapur

PAGE 09

reflections

By Sandemo Ngullie

PAGE 02

Prices of non-branded Petrol across state capitals (Rs./Litre) Kohima: 62.36

Prices of non-branded Diesel across state capitals (Rs./Litre) Kohima : 52.91

Applicable from 6:00 a.m. on 09th July 2017

Dejavu as nPf battles internal nemesis

Internal power struggle, the hallmark of present DAN tenure

TR stakes claim to form new govt

Morung Express News Dimapur | July 8

There, I’ve linked my Adhaar to my LPG, PAN, Bank Ac and Phone number. Shall I link it to my cooking stove in advance?

YVC, NVC objects demand for transfer of DC Longleng DIMAPUR, JULY 8 (MExN): The Yachem Village Council (YVC) and Noksosang Village Council (NVC) have strongly objected to the demand of the Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) for the transfer of Deputy Commissioner (DC), Longleng.

In a joint press statement, YVC and NVC chairmen M Imti Phom and Hennang Phom reminded that the issue has been amicably settled between the Phom People Council (PPC) and Yachem Village Council (YVC) during a joint meeting on February 6, 2017 in Longleng and the same published in all the local dailies the following day.

Despite the clarification issued by the PPC on many occasions, the JCC’s insistence for transfer of the DC, Longleng without any reason is not acceptable under any circumstances, the joint press statement maintained. The two councils have therefore rejected the JCC’s demand and appealed all to respect and uphold the February 6 agreement between the PPC and YVC.

Border row: China issues safety advisory for its citizens in India

C M Y K

BEIJING, JULY 8 (IANS): China has issued a safety advisory to its citizens travelling to and living in India over the worsening border row between the two countries. “The (Chinese) embassy in India has issued a safety advisory to its people asking them to pay attention to their safety and avoid unnecessary travel,” a Chinese government official told IANS. The advisory was issued on July 7 and is for a month. No reason was given for issuing such a notice. “They have been asked to contact local police or the Chinese Embassy in Delhi,” the official added. The advisory comes as Indian and Chinese troops have been engaged in a stand-off in Doklam region in Sikkim sector since mid June, which has led to marked unease in ties. Last week, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said depending on the security situation China could issue a travel alert to its citizens visiting India. According to the advisory, Chinese living in India need to pay attention to the local security situation. It says they need to carry personal identification and inform in advance their family, colleagues, and friends if travelling out of home. It also asks them to strictly comply with Indian laws and regulations and respect local and religious customs.

Yet again, Nagaland legislators is playing a game they know best – throwing tantrum and camping in Kaziranga for another power struggle.

Despite a resounding mandate to govern the State in 2013, the current Naga People’s Front (NPF) led Democratic Alliance of Nagaland (DAN) has been riddled with several major political upheavals, mostly engineered internally, from within the Party.

On July 7, 5 months 15 days since the current Chief Minister and NPF supremo Dr Shürhozelie Liezietsu took over the reins of the affairs, the State is staring at another political spectacle.

In a run-up to the 10 Northern Angami-I constituency bye-poll on July 29, MLAs have grouped themselves into different camps in what is set to be a replay of what happened in 2014, 2015 and 2017.

The faction ridden NPF party faced a new crisis that directly challenges the incumbent Chief Minister. A majority of NPF legislators left his camp and reportedly traveled to their favorite haunting place Kaziranga for another version of ‘Games of Thrones’ in Nagaland political arena.

A staffer of the resort Borgos in Kaziranga told The New Indian Express, on July 8, that, ‘Some 30 ministers and MLAs checked’ in at around 3AM on Saturday along with others and “booked around 30 rooms.”

As per reports that emerged today, the MLAs are grouped into 3 camps – one under ex-CM TR Zeliang, another under former CM and present Lok Sabha MP Neiphiu and a third under incumbent CM Dr. Liezietsü.

The NPF has 47 MLAs in the Assembly.

The arrival of National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind to Nagaland on July 8 and a subsequent meeting of the DAN legislators in Dimapur preceded the events that followed the crisis.

Engendering a crisis and subsequent hopping of affinities seem to have be-

DIMAPUR, JULY 8 (MExN): Former Chief Minister TR Zeliang, claiming to be the Leader of the NPF Legislature Party and Chairman, DAN has staked claim to form a new NPF led DAN Government in Nagaland.

A statement addressed to the Nagaland Governor from TR Zeliang which was also received by the media late Saturday evening claimed that he has the support of 34 NPF MLAs out of the 47 (including him) and 7 Independent MLAs taking the tally of his supporters to a total of 49 MLAs.

Dr. Shürhozelie Liezietsu

TR Zeliang

come a clear calculated political gamble in Nagaland.

The latest upheaval, however, was reportedly engineered by present DAN Chairman and former Chief Minister TR Zeliang.

His strange bedfellow – Neiphiu Rio, the lone Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha) from Nagaland is providing ample company this time around. The group is reportedly projecting TR Zeliang as their leader.

Among them, there are reportedly 45 legislators, while Dr Liezitsu has 12 members. The three legislators from Bharatiya Janata Party is said to be maintaining a neutral stand. This equation tips the scale in favour of the Rio-Zeliang camp.

While the Zeliang camp is reported to have BJP MLAs, sources quoting an aide to one of the BJP MLAs denied the report.

However, a late night input from Kaziranga said that 3 BJP MLA along with 7 Independent left for the resort around 7 PM further reducing Dr. Shürhozelie’s strength, with only 8 Cabinets including a BJP Minister in DAN Coalition and a Parliamentary Secretary.

The ‘bone of contention’ is the change in leadership, the sources added.

Efforts to reach out to the MLAs came to naught as their contact numbers remained either “unreachable” or “switched off.”

Earlier today, at the sideline of a programme, Rajya Sabha MP and the general secretary of the NPF, KG Kenye denied the “camping” report. “We’ll know in a few hours,” he added when reminded that the Chief Minister will be issuing a press statement later in the day in this regard.

This is the fourth instance that the current DAN coalition have faced power struggle by shifting of loyalties and jostling for the CM’s chair. The first instance was in 2014 when the then CM Neiphiu Rio resigned and successfully contested the Lok Sabha polls. The second spectacle occurred in early 2015, when Zeliang and Dr. Shürhozelie banded together to fend off a stiff challenge from dissident MLAs under the banner of MP Rio. In the third, Dr Shürhozelie was sworn in as the 17th Chief Minister of Nagaland on February 22 after a huge political drama, right after the state witnessed widespread chaos and violence, over election to Urban Local Bodies (ULBs).

Cracking its whip last year, the NPF had suspended Rio from the primary and active membership of the party for alleged “antiparty activities” on May 17. Former Home Minister of the State, Imkong L Imchen, was suspended in April under similar circumstances but rejoined in February 2017.

Zeliang said that 34 NPF MLAs (including himself) had supported him to be the Leader of the Legislature Party of the NPF during a meeting at his residence in Dimapur on July 4, 2017. The meeting further authorized him to stake claim before the Governor to form a new NPF led DAN government.

This above claim had proved that the Council of Ministers of the incumbent Chief Minister Dr Shurhozelie Liezietsu has been reduced to a minority, Zeliang’s statement read.

CM Shürhozelie appeals for ‘clam’

DIMAPUR, JULY 8 (MExN): Breaking his silence over the latest political crisis in the NPF, the Chief Minister of Nagaland Dr. Shürhozelie Liezietsu today appealed the people of the State to “remain calm.”

Dr. Shürhozelie, who is also the President of the Naga People’s Front, said that he was deeply pained by the “recent disturbing developments affecting the normal functioning of the Government.”

Asserting that the NPF led DAN Government will complete its full term, the Chief Minister in a statement said, “The normal government functioning should be smooth and the benefits of the Government programmes at the grassroot level especially in rural areas should not be hampered in any manner.”

He further maintained that the current issue is within the NPF party and will be “resolved

at the earliest to bring about normalcy in the state.”

“The mandate of the people will be respected and the present crisis will be resolved in the larger interest of the people of the State,” the Chief Minister added.

Terminates TR’s position as Advisor Meanwhile, following latest political development in the State, the Chief Minister of Nagaland Dr. Shürhozelie Liezietsu has terminated TR Zeliang’s appointment as Advisor (Finance) to the Government of Nagaland.

A press notification from Cabinet Secretary Pankaj Kumar stated that Zeliang is terminated “with immediate effect.”

Following the termination order, TR Zeliang in a statement addressed to the Governor of Nagaland tendered his resignation as the Advisor (Finance) to the Government of Nagaland.

rengma nagas seeks one administration, iMtn for undiluted fundamental rights DIMAPUR, JULY 8 (MExN): The Rengma Hoho has urged the Government of India (GoI) to bring the Rengma tribe which is presently divided into two administrative units of Assam and Nagaland by an imaginary boundary under one administration.

We the Rengmas desire to live under one administration and this will not be a problem since there is no political demarcation between Assam and Nagaland, the Rengma Hoho told the Interlocutor of Naga peace talks, RN Ravi during their interaction at Chumukedima.

A press statement issued by Rengma Hoho president Kenyuseng Tep said the Rengma tribe have been neSumi women performing during the Tuluni Festival celebration at the Government High glected and discriminated for long School Ground, Purana Bazaar, Dimapur on July 8. (Morung Photo) and further division in the event of

NSF must publicly apologize to the Sumi tribe: SKK says

Sumi student organizations stand by decision of SKK

DIMAPUR, JULY 8 (MExN): The decision of the Naga Students’ Federation (NSF) to hold the HSLC Toppers felicitation program coinciding with the Tuluni festival, premier festival of the Sumi Nagas has snowballed.

The All Sumi Students’ Union (SKK) in an ultimatum on Saturday demanded that the NSF publicly apologize to the Sumi tribe in all the local dailies before July 12 for “deliberately hurting the sentiments of the Sumi tribe.”

The SKK said on July 7, it had protested to the NSF over its decision to hold the said felicitation programme on the auspicious day of the Sumi Tuluni festival to which the Fed-

eration had responded on July 8 that it cannot be postponed.

It therefore stated that the action of the NSF amounts to “willful and deliberate disregard and humiliation not only of Sumi student bodies but the whole Sumi tribe in general.”

Expressing resentment, the Dimapur Sumi Students Union (DSSU) said it has decided not to cooperate in any of the activities of the NSF. A press statement issued

by DSSU on Saturday informed that it will “not cooperate in any of the activities of NSF in the near future either from its office or from its bonafied members within its jurisdiction, until NSF publicly tender its apologies to the Sumi community.”

It alleged that NSF openly disrespected and disregarded the Sumi community by deciding to go ahead with the

HSLC felicitation program on July 8 which coincided with Tuluni, the premier festival of Sumi community even after the appeal was made by SKK. The DSSU also questioned the NSF incumbent officials, whether it has any regard for the preamble of its constitution which read, “.....to cultivate and preserve our cultures, customs and traditional heritage....” on the basis of which the Federation was formed.

Meanwhile, the Western Sumi Students’ Union (WSSU) has demanded mass resignation of the NSF team on moral ground basing on the violation of its constitution. “The elected leaders are entitled to work for preserving and safe-guarding the identity and culture of the citizen, but the officials and the office of NSF misused by vested leaders has denied the rights,

culture and identity of the Sumi community,” it alleged.

If the current NSF team does not resign on moral grounds, the WSSU cautioned that it will declare non-cooperation to the Federation within its jurisdiction.

In separate statements, the Emlo-To Students’ Union (ETKK) and Satoi Range Students Union (SRSU) questioned the intention of the NSF for threatening the unity of the Nagas by their “prejudiced decision.”

The SRSU stated that, “NSF being the highest apex body failed to uphold and safeguard their own preamble, which shows complete immature in their leadership.”

Both unions informed that until further notice or directive from the SKK, their members will not cooperate with the NSF.

the final solution between the Nagas and the GoI would be tantamount to denial of justice.

“Rengmas were living on our own land since time immemorial with clear defined territories which cannot be disputed, therefore we urge that justice should not be denied to the Rengmas,” it stated.

The Rengma Hoho also expressed for the need of an inclusive solution, with all the Naga Political Groups taken abroad in the final settlement.

Further, it espoused hope that an acceptable and honourable solution is arrived at the earliest and urged the Indian leaders and the Naga to use its wisdom and not to distract from their commitment.

The Indigenous Minority Tribes

of Nagaland (IMTN), which is a conglomeration of Kuki, Kachari, Garo, Karbi tribes, meanwhile impressed upon the Interlocutor that their rights as ensured by the Constitution of India should not be diluted in the event of a political solution to the Naga issue.

IMTN President, K Lun Tungnung said the fundamental and human rights of the indigenous minority stands marginalized despite their contributions to Nagaland being second to none. In this connection, Tungnung said he apprised the Interlocutor that in the event of any solution to the vexed Naga issue, it should be arrived at with consensus of all the stakeholders, irrespective of caste, religion or tribe.

Nagaland Government flouting ban on contractual appointment: PSAN

DIMAPUR, JULY 8 (MExN): The Public Service Aspirants of Nagaland (PSAN) has alleged that the Nagaland State Government is still making appointments on contract basis despite issuing the Office Memorandum on June 6, 2016, which banned all adhoc/temporary/work-charge appointments.

According to PSAN media cell, the Government of Nagaland has made 32 contract appointments in 3 departments after June 6, 2016 notification. In the Department of Higher and Technical Education, 18 assistant professors were appointed on contract basis, in the Department of Justice and Law, 9 assistant public prosecutors and one LDA-cumcomputer assistant have been appointed. Further in the Department of Art and Culture, 1 post each of Assistant Archivist, LDA, Research Assistant for Phom tribe, Research Assistant for Pochuri tribe have been appointed, the PSAN has alleged.

Highlighting these findings, the PSAN wanted to know how the gov-

ernment could violate its very own Office Memorandum that banned all contractual appointments. It stated that this was complete betrayal of the people’s trust by the government by making rules and regulation that had meaning only on paper.

Cautioning that the level of tolerance of educated unemployed young men and women of Nagaland has reached its saturation point, the PSAN has advised the government to wise-up and do away with the unethical practice of backdoor appointments without delay.

Meanwhile, the PSAN termed the statement made by MLA Imkong L Imchen aftermath the July 3 peaceful protest as “preposterous.”

“The least a political leader could do is by not making statements contradictory to the obvious fact. The future of our young boys and girls is not a game for politicians to play. If there is any conscience left in them, what is right and good for the people of Nagaland should be done with all earnestness,” the PSAN stated.

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Sunday 09•07•2017

NAGALAND

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

MLA Tokheho graces Tuluni at Dimapur Morung Express News Dimapur | July 8

Sumi Community of Purana Bazaar on Saturday celebrated Tuluni festival at Government High School Ground with MLA Tokheho Yepthomi as the chief guest and HK Khulu IAS (retd) as the Tuluni Papuh (Tuluni father).

Speaking at the programme, Tokheho emphasised on the MLA Tokheho Yepthomi addressing the Tuluni need to preserve one’s own culfestival organised by the Sumi Community of ture and tradition and live by Purana Bazaar on July 8. (Morung Photo) examples of the truth and hon-

esty as exhibited by the forefathers. He urged upon the Sumi community to continue living in peace and harmony and show similar ways to the rest of the Naga community. The chief guest also encouraged the people to uplift each other and work towards communal harmony.

H.K. Khulu, IAS (retd) also addressed gathering during the programme which was marked by various traditional and cultural items.

Meanwhile, Dimapur Dis-

trict Citizens Forum (DDCF), a forum of all tribes and communities of Dimapur in a press note has extended Tuluni greetings to the Sumi Community of Nagaland. Joseph Lemtur, President and Ahidur Rahman, General Secretary of the Forum wishes that this major festival of the Sumi Naga Tribe would bring a new era of prosperity and peace not only among the Sumi Tribe but also among all tribes and non Naga Communities living in Nagaland.

Tuluni celebration in Kohima Our Correspondent Kohima | July 8

The Sumi community of Agri/ Forest/Electrical, Kohima today celebrated its premier Tuluni festival with much zest and pomp at the residence of K.K. Sema, IAS (Rtd), Upper Forest colony. The festival was marked by folk songs, dances, indigenous games etc.

Addressing the gathering, Hoto Yeptho, director Land Resources Development called upon the community to be sincere and committed in their respective assignments and take Women performing a cultural item during the Tuluni festival celebration held at the society forward.

Kohima on July 8.

He also called upon the gath-

ering to carry the torch of hard labour and at the same time erase laziness from their minds.

Also extending greetings, KK Sema stressed on the need to maintain unity among the community. He reminded that everything is possible as long as the feeling of oneness exist among the community.

The significance of Tuluni was briefed by Guru Sahoto Shohe.

Earlier, Tuluni committee convenor Ghokishe Achumi delivered welcome address while vote of thanks was proposed by AFE Sümi community chairman Er. Shikheto Aye. The celebration concluded with a grand Tuluni feast.

A team of youth performs cultural dance during the celebration of Tuluni Festival, premier festival of the Sumi Community at Purana Bazaar, Dimapur on July 8. (Morung Photo)

A section of women geared up in traditional attire participates in the Tuluni celebration held at Philimi village on July 8. Vikikhe Assumi graced the celebration as ‘Tuluni Papuh (father).’

Lok Adalat takes up 219 cases NSF honours HSLC Naga toppers 2017

Parties and Litigants showing up before the National Lok Adalat sittings for settling cases in Kohima district on July 8.

Disposes cases amounting to more than two crore Kohima, July 8 (mExN): The National Lok Adalat (people’s Court) was observed today, across the State in all the District Headquarters, organised

by District Legal Services Authorities in all district headquarters. Cases were mostly dealt on Banking matters, u/s 138 NI Act and Recovery suits.

Lok Adalat Nodal Officer, Nagaland State Legal Services Authority, Kohima informed in a press release that a total of 219 cases were taken up for settlement, among which

132 cases, mostly at prelitigative stage were disposed of on the same day. The total settlement amount involved in the disposed cases amounts to Rs. 2,56,78,784/- (Rupees Two crore fifty six lakh seventy eight thousand seven hundred eighty four) only.

The Lok Adalat Nodal Officer also stated that Lok Adalat sittings and proceedings were conducted

by Legal services institution to provide speedy justice and also to ease up the case pendency in the District & Sessions Courts. Sittings were carried out at the respective District Court Buildings and also at suitable places arranged accordingly for convenience. In some cas-

es, the proceedings were conducted in local dialects overcoming the barrier of illiteracy. The Principal District & Sessions Judges, Chief Judicial Magistrates and Civil Judges appointed as Presiding Officers were assisted by the Panel Lawyers, Retainer Lawyers, Legal Aid Counsels, Police personnel, Bank officials and Para Legal Volunteers serving as conciliators.

The Lok Adalat (The Peoples Court) is for speedy and amicable settlement of cases based on the concept of conciliated settlement of disputes.

There is no further appeal once the matter is settled in Lok Adalat. Both the Parties negotiate for settlement and resolved their cases on the spot and on immediate basis. The system of Lok Adalat minimizes litigation expenditure and there are no court fee charges in Lok Adalat. The parties can get their disputes settled fast and free of cost.

The National Lok Adalat is held bimonthly throughout the country and are administered by the respective State Legal Services Authorities which are statutory bodies constituted under the Legal Services Authorities Act 1987.

‘Education goes beyond academics’

W HSLC Naga toppers 2017 with guest and NSF officials during the felicitation programme held on July 8. (Morung Photo) Morung Express News Kohima | July 8

The Naga Students’ Federation (NSF) organised its felicitation programme for HSLC Naga toppers 2017 on July 8 with Er. Kevisekho Kruse, Chief Engineer, PHED, Government of Nagaland as the guest speaker.

A total of 29 Naga toppers were felicitated in the event.

Providing a brief history on the annual felicitation of toppers, newly elected NSF President Kesosul Christopher Ltu in his presidential note mentioned that it was initiated in the year 2000 to motivate the young achievers to become responsible leaders in future.

Ltu stated that it is important for the achievers to know and understand their history especially its cultural and political history to become leaders. The Naga aspiration has

been advocated under so many banners and nomenclatures yet the message remain the same, therefore Ltu urged the students to carry forward the same aspiration in future too.

Clarifying over a recent post in social media where criticisms arose over the felicitation event being held on the same day as Tuluni, Ltu expressed regret that the programme coincided with the Tuluni Festival which was “fixed unintentional.”

Ravelü Nienu (Top 7) from Greenwood School, Dimapur who spoke on behalf of the Toppers extended her gratitude to the NSF, parents and teachers. Nienu particularly thanked the teachers who enabling the students in making learning a passion and help instill in the students the flame to seek knowledge.

A special number was presented by Neingusalie Yano, Music Topper, NBSE 2017, Northfield Khikha.

hile exhorting the gathering, Er Kevisekho Kruse said that most people today pursue education for wealth creation, job opportunities and professional interests and advised the students that education must generate trustworthy leaders, citizens of benevolent and noble character and balanced personalities.

Although excelling in academic pursuits is a success, Kruse pointed out that education goes beyond academics; therefore the students must also question themselves on what they really want from education. “Producing someone to become capable of getting a job, to become a professional or law abiding citizen is not enough. These are not enough in themselves. There are more important things in life such as character, moral purity, values, personality, and trustworthiness,” said Kruse.

“We need to have courage for the truth, stand up for the right cause. Nobility, benevolence, good character- these are the things of greater importance than the facts and knowledge you gain. Your academics will not take you far,” said Kruse who encouraged the students to also focus on the invisible element of their lives especially the spirit and the character.

Lamenting over the deterioration of morality in the present society, Kruse expressed the need for character building in education today and further stated, “The good news is that it is possible, the good news is you and I can do it.”

Er. Kruse viewed that Naga society is still a growing society, and therefore it needs people in myriad professions to progress. The achievers in the HSLC are the right group to achieve the lofty ideals and dreams of the society. With government jobs reaching a point of saturation, Kruse highlighted the opportunities and possibilities of private avenues which can employ more Nagas than government jobs.

Appeal to restore NH 61 and NH 702(A) Bade adopted as model village under SAGY scheme

Dimapur, July 8 (mExN): In continuation to the appeal letter dated 27/03/2017, the Akuluto-VK Area public held an emergency meeting and resolved to once again make the “final appeal” for maintenance and resumption of NH 702 (A).

The appeal letter addressed to the Chief Engineer, National Highway, Nagaland: Kohima stated that it has been more than two years since the existing State Highway No. 69 has been taken over by the NHAI. “Till then, the road has been left totally unattended causing extreme inconveniences to all

the people using this road,” stated the letter appended by Akuluto Area GBs' Association, Chairman, Yehokhu Chophy; VK Area GBs' Association, President, Nitoyi Assumi; GBs' Council Akuluto, Chairman, Hotovi Chishi; GB, Akuluto M Vikheto Chophy; and GB, Akuluto Sushoto Kinny.

It is also reminded that this highway is a lifeline not only to Zunheboto district but it also serves the state's leading institutions such as Nagaland University HQ (Lumami), Khelhoshe Polytechnic Atoizu, State Pig Breeding

Centre Akuluto, 8 NAP Naltoqa, Christian Mission Centre (Aizuto) to name a few.

Last year the road was totally cutoff at Alaphu owing to massive landslide and even this year's recent accident of a truck proceeding to Zunheboto on July 2, 2017 leading to the death of two passengers and grievously injuring seven copassengers is the classic example of the road condition.

While highlighting the pledges, the letter stated that the christened National Highway 702(A) is no better than the river. “The entire district

is ransomed by the deplorable road condition affecting almost all activities of life which has come to a standstill,” it added. Therefore, the Chief Engineer has been requested “to resurrect the road condition within the month of July 2017.”

“Failing which the area public shall be compelled to close the NH 61 as well as NH 702(A) for an indefinite period of time and the department concerned shall be solely held responsible for any consequences that may entail out of such consequential action,” the appeal note added.

70 % of landslides in Longchem area cleared ‘LDPN will continue to exist as a civil society’

SDRF personal constructs a temporary road to cross a landslide area under Yajang A village jurisdiction on July 8.

loNgchEm, July 8 (mExN): District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) Chairman, DC Mokokchung on Saturday informed that 70 percent of the landslides that occurred last June under Longchem EAC Circle, Mokokchung District have been cleared.

He added that the team led by EAC Longchem Trongdiba Tongpi, staff of EE Mangkolemba (PWD) along with Japukong Kaketshir Mungdang and Japukong Youth organization was able to clear the road till Lirmen last night and have also

distributed essential commodities in the village. ADC Mangkolemba along with DDMA Mokokchung officer and SDRF personals has also delivered essential commodities to two villages Yajang A and Yajang Model today. The remaining part of the landslides might be cleared by the team tonight, the official disclosed.

The road connecting Tuli and Assam remained cut off for the last two weeks and the only life line for the affected villages is via Mangkolemba.

Dimapur, July 8 (mExN): The Liberal Democratic Party Nagaland (LDPN) held a meeting on July 8 where the members present resolved to clarify the position of the party.

According to a press release issued by the LDPN Press Bureau, the party which was formed as a regional political party, a movement of the concerned intellectual Nagas against the corrupted system, has failed to register as a political party, owing to genuine reasons; financial as well as failing to enroll the required number of members during the allotted time, as per the Representation of the People Act. During the meeting, it was resolved that the LDPN will continue to exist as a civil society, until further notice in the future, and to keep on voicing out political concerns.

“Checking the ground realities, since Nagaland was yet to implement true democratic values in its systems, the LPDN would be open for ties with any existing political party who resolves to abide by the true ideals of democracy,” the LDPN Press Bureau added.

The press release also mentioned that leaders of the LDPN went on to meet RN Ravi at Police guest house in Chumukedima, Dimapur, on Saturday, however, due to tight schedule, the meeting was not possible. However the LDPN, led by the President, Imkum Ao, and K. Chishi, managed to drop suggestions to Sameer, a PR (public relation) officer stating that..."the document of the Framework itself had to be taken into the consent of the people and not just the concept of the framework agreement.”

Rajya Sabha MP, KG Kenye at the ceremonial adoption programme of Bade village as a model village under the SAGY on July 8.

Morung Express News Dimapur | July 8

Bade village under Dhansiripar sub-division in Dimapur district has been adopted as a model village under the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) of the Central government. The programme, which was launched in October 2014, focuses on development of model villages through a collaborative implementation of existing schemes and designing new initiatives based on the local context.

The scheme also requires Members of Parliament, irrespective of party affiliation, to actively participate with each MP requiring to adopt villages in their respective constituencies and fix parameters to turn them into model villages.

As per the programme plan, Rajya Sabha MP, KG Kenye adopted Bade village. Speaking at the ceremonial adoption programme at the village on July 8, Kenye explained the reason for adopting Bade under the scheme. “There are many other deserving villages in and around this sub-division and in other parts within this district.

But there are two outstanding reasons why I chose this village,” said Kenye.

According to him, the connection the Bade villagers share with the history of the Naga National movement, “The connection and the significance, the legacy that is a part of this village was one of the outstanding reasons why I have chosen this village.” The other, he said is the village’s strategic location.

Stating that this is not the first instance of an MP adopting a model village, he added that it should be an exemplar or rather set a benchmark on how model villages should be like.

While he said that the occasion was celebratory, he though added that with the celebration also comes the responsibility of living up to the programme’s vision. “We also have the added responsibility of demonstrating what a true Naga citizen should be (and) Bade’s citizens as exemplifying themselves as model Naga citizens.”

The Deputy Commissioner, Dimapur, Kesonye Yhome described the programme objective as a holistic approach towards development that envisages integrated development of the village across multiple areas. While the aim is to provide access to basic amenities and opportunities, it also aims at nurturing the value of community spirit, self-confidence and people’s participation.

SAGY’s State Nodal Officer and Deputy Director, Rural Development while highlighting the programme objective said that as an adopted village under the programme a heightened sense of responsibility and cooperation with the departmental agencies on the part of the villagers is paramount.

Sunday 09•07•2017

NORTH-EAST 3

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

Manipur: Tripartite talks postponed 'Stir again for inner line permit in Manipur' MHA re-schedules meeting citing ‘other urgent matters,’ New venue & date by Monday Newmai News Network

to attend the July 10 talks.

The UNC leaders obliged to the “fervent request” of the Central Government in this regard. The sources said that the re-scheduled date of the tripartite talks will be known by Monday.

It is also said that even the venue of the talks has been changed. Now the next tripartite talks will be held in Senapati district headquarters and not in Ukhrul town.

Meanwhile, the UNC will hold “crucial” meeting in Senapati town on Sunday from 10:30AM at UNC office in connection with the issue.

It is worth recalling here that the one month’s time frame to hold tripartite talks on the district creation issue involving the Manipur

Government, the United Naga Council (UNC) and the Central Government had lapsed on June 19.

Earlier, the UNC leaders had asserted that they were ready to resort to strong forms of agitation again if the issue was not taken seriously by the Government.

The UNC leaders had also said that there should be a ‘time frame or time bound’ for the government to resolve the issue. The UNC had already said it “cannot go on holding the tripartite talks without addressing the issue". The UNC leaders had further said earlier that “if the tripartite talks are not going to address the issue we are all ready and all prepared to defend our lands by any means.” The UNC leaders even stated

that they are closely monitoring the trend, and that it “will oppose anything that hurts the sentiment of the Naga people.”

On May 19, the representatives of the Manipur Government, the Central Government and the UNC had agreed upon to hold tripartite talks on the district creation issue at the political level within a month’s time.

The UNC also stated that “since the new government of Manipur under the leadership of N Biren Singh and the Narendra Modi government at the Centre had assured us to redress the problems created by the communal Ibobi Singh government we are fervently waiting for the justice.”

In the last tripartite

Imphal, July 8 (IaNS): A group in favour of the Inner Line Permit (ILP) system on Saturday announced it will renew its agitation soon to demand its implementation in Manipur.

Joint Committee on Inner Line Permit System (JCILPS) Convener Arjun Telheiba said talks will be held with leaders of Manipur tribes in this connection.

On Saturday, Manipur observed the second death anniversary of a student S. Robinhood who was killed

talks held on May 19 in Senapati headquarters involving the United Naga The much hyped tripartite Council (UNC), the Govtalks involving the United ernment of India and the Naga Council (UNC), the State Government of MaCentral Government and nipur, it was reaffirmed the State Government of the “focal point No 1 of Manipur on district creagreement arrived at in ation issue scheduled to the tripartite talks on be held on July 10 at UkhMarch 19, 2017” which rul have been postponed. states that “the grievances Sources said that the talks of the United Naga Counwill be held after four or five cil which led to the imdays. position of the economic According to the sourcblockade by them was es, the Central Government recognized as there was has "fervently requested" non-adherence to the four the United Naga Council Memorandum of Under(UNC) for the postponestanding (MoU) and the ment of the talks for few Government of India’s asmore days saying the Minissurance on the matter. The try of Home Affairs (MHA) Government of Manipur ItaNaGar, July 8 has "other urgent matters" agrees to start consulta(ptI): Arunachal Pradesh to attend, making it diffition with all stakeholders Chief Minister Pema Khancult for its representatives to redress the same”. du has welcomed the Armys development initiative in the state and said Tawang has been developed because of them.

He also said people of Backing police, state situation worsened, as agi- Arunachal Pradesh and the DarJeelING, July 8 one in Darjeeling, one in Friday night. Police denied Tourism Minister Gautam tators set afire the Neora (IaNS): The army was de- Sonada, where one railway it was to blame.

Army share a special bond, Claiming that Bhutia Deb said: "The allegation Range office quarter and ployed in north West Ben- station was set afire," a Dewhen Major General Ashok gal's hills on Saturday after fence Ministry spokesman was its active member, the that Bhutia died in police two vehicles at Gorubathan Dhingra, the GOC of 56 Inthree persons died and a said here. One army col- pro-Gorkhaland Gorkha firing is completely false." in Kalimpong district, and But a district official a police check post near fantry Division called on policeman sustained inju- umn comprises 43 person- National Liberation Front (GNLF) leader Neeraj said the police had to fire Thurbo Tea Factory, Mirik him yesterday to discuss ries in a sudden escalation nel.

In Kolkata, Chief Min- Zimba said: "An innocent in self-defence after Bhutia in Darjeeling district. Po- defence-related issues in the of violence with pro-Gorklice blamed the GJM, but haland activists engaging ister Mamata Banerjee ap- Gorkhaland supporter has attacked with a 'khukri'.

The incident triggered the latter denied. in widespread arson and pealed for peace and said been shot dead..." The GJM Meanwhile, the Central vandalism targeting a rail- she was open to holding a claimed that Bhutia was its a fresh flare up on Saturday as GJM and GNLF ac- Committee of Dooars GJM way station, police out- dialogue with protestors in supporter.

"Yet another person tivists torched the Sonada deceided to go on hunger posts and government of- the next 10-15 days if they Imphal, July 8 eschewed violence and has died in the hills," GJM railway station and a traffic strike from Wednesday. fices.

The Chief Minister, (IaNS): The flood situa"Three persons have Union Home Minister Ra- Assistant General Secre- police booth and attacked died, one on Friday night, jnath Singh if he so desired. tary Binay Tamang said, as the Sonada police outpost. who met the media at the tion in Manipur worsened The situation in Darjeel- the indefinite shutdown to One policeman was in- state secretariat Nabanna, as the water level of matwo on Saturday," said a blamed "foreign forces" jor rivers increased due to Darjeeling district official. ing district, already on the press for Gorkhaland en- jured.

Protest demonstrations close to the BJP for playing incessant rain and many As the situation contin- boil for a month after the tered the 24th day on Satand blockades were on at a part in the recent flare-up villages continued to reel ued to deteriorate through principal hill party Gorkha urday. under the floods. Chief A police complaint several places and the of- in the hills. the day, the government Janmukti Morcha renewed She accused the cen- Minister N. Biren Singh decided to call in the army the movement for a Gork- lodged at Sonada police fices of the Deputy Super- the second time in exactly haland state, deteriorated outpost by the victim's fam- intendent of police (Town) tral government of "non- announced on Saturday a month after Darjeeling abruptly over allegations ily alleged that Bhutia was and the Food and Supply cooperation", and claimed that relief material will be that 30-year-old Tasi Bhutia shot by police while he was Department were vandal- the crisis could have been distributed to the victims. turned restive. averted through timely de- While the central govern"Two army columns died in police firing during on his way to buy medi- ised in Darjeeling.

As the day wore on, the ployment of central forces. ment is yet to send a team have been deployed - a disturbance at Sonada on cines. to assess the flood situation, the state government had sent a proposal to have the floods declared a state calamity.

Director of the Zoological Garden of Manipur P.S. Haokip has notified that it GuwahatI, July 8 (ptI): At least five persons, rol under the GST, while it is will remain closed till furincluding three students, have been electrocuted af- aGartala/Guwaha- Agartala.

The Chairman of the Rs 20 lakh in other states of ther orders from Monday. ter coming into contact with snapped electricity wires tI, July 8 (IaNS): Amid Indian Chamber of Com- the country. confusion and initial relucWhile visitors find it difin Assam during the last three days prompting public Eight GST commission- ficult to come due to the tance, traders in the north- merce, North East Initiative, outcry and protests against the Power department. east seem to have finally ac- Mahesh Saharia, said: "In- erates have been opened in surging flood waters, the A college student identified as Dharitri Deka cepted the new Goods and dustry-starved northeastern the region, of which two are animals are under threat. was electrocuted in Lakhimpur district after she had Services Tax (GST) regime states are mostly consumer in Assam -- Guwahati and parked her cycle against an electric pole that had a and officials are hopeful that states and not producing Dibrugarh -- and one each lose live overhead electric wire yesterday, official teething troubles will be re- states. The GST will be ben- in Shillong (Meghalaya), sources said. eficial for the region."

Imphal (Manipur), Itanagar solved soon.

Yesterday two other persons were also electro"After the introduction (Arunachal Pradesh), Aizawl The Federation of Induscuted -- mobile tower operator Mantu Bora at La- try and Commerce of North of GST, the traders of the re- (Mizoram), Agartala (Tripu- aIzawl, July 8 (ptI): okhowa Road in Nagaon district and class two stu- Eastern Region (FINER), the gion will get the input credit, ra) and Kohima (Nagaland). Mizoram Excise and Nardent Bidyut Das when he came in contact with an Northeast Chapter of the which was not there earlier.

Three offices of Central Ex- cotics department ofelectricity cable that had snapped and was lying near Federation of Indian Cham- The GST and other taxing of- cise and Service Tax in Guwa- ficials today seized 28.5 his Bihita primary school at Amolighat in Jagiroad, bers of Commerce and In- ficials must cooperate with hati, Dibrugarh and Shillong grams of heroin from Zotdustry (FICCI), the Indian the traders of the region to would cover the northeastern lang village close to the Morigaon district.

On Thursday one Raju Singh was electrocuted at Chamber of Commerce, cope with the new tax re- states before the GST rollout. Mizoram-Myanmar bor"Even if the annual turn- der in Champhai district, Lakhi Nagar in Nagaon district during flash floods, North East Initiative, and the gime," Saharia told IANS. FINER President Pabitra over of a trader is less than Rs a department spokesman Tripura Chamber of Comthe sources said.

Another student, 12-year old Netrajit Biswas merce and Industry (TCCI) Buragohain, while welcom- 10 lakh but he is doing inter- said.

The spokesman said studying in class five, was electrocuted after he came have all welcomed the GST ing the GST, demanded 100 state and inter-country trade, per cent excise duty refund he will have to enrol under and urged the government in contact with a live electric wire at Raikata of Islamthe GST," Sanjoy Majumder, to familiarise traders with the under the GST. pur in Hojai district, they added.

"Some crucial issues re- Assistant Commissioner new system.

Meanwhile, public protests and outcries against "As the government has garding industries, besides Central Excise and Service the Power Department have erupted after five perintroduced the new tax re- special reference to Assam Tax, Tripura commissioner- Measuring Approximately sons were electrocuted by live wires within two days. gime, we have to go by it. and Northeast, must be re- ate, told IANS. 4 Bighas The protesters demanded action against power sup- Earlier, we have done tax solved. Training to small Burma Camp, Jasokie He said a large number of ply APDCL officials for not repairing snapped elec- management mostly manu- traders is required for filling traders in Tripura, who had Colony (Municipal Area) tric wires and for the resignation of Power Minister ally, but now we have to mi- GST returns and completing their own facilities or outRs.350/- per sq.ft.

Pallab Lochan Das. Negotiable for Genuine sourcing system for paying grate to a computerised and other formalities," he said.

In Lakhimpur the local unit of the influential All online system despite indiCustomer All businesses with an- taxes and administering the Assam Students? Union (AASU) has flayed the Pow- vidual handicaps and logistic nual turnover of more than previous system, could miNo Broker Please er department officials alleging that their indifferent deficiencies," said Bijan Ban- Rs 10 lakh in the northeast grate to the new GST system Contact No. attitude lead to the deaths. ik, a medium-scale trader in region will be required to en- without much difficulty.

Senapati | July 8

in police firing during the ILP agitation.

"Chief minister N. Biren Singh's action in seeking forgiveness from tribals of Churachandpur district is aimed at deriving political mileage. He never consulted the JCILPS before making public statement on the issue," he said.

Following a protracted agitation, the Manipur assembly had passed three anti-migrant bills. The President had declined assent to one bill while two others were returned.

Nine other tribals had died in Churachandpur district while protesting against the three bills that were dubbed "anti-tribal" by its opponents.

Telheiba said: "There is no clause in the bills against the tribals or any other community. It seems a misunderstanding was created on the issue."

The ILP system has been in force in Mizoram, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh in areas where the entry of non-locals is restricted.

Arunachal CM welcomes Armys development initiative in state

Widespread violence in Darjeeling, army called in

state, an official release said here today.

Dhingra discussed defence land acquisition issue with Khandu, who assured him that all such cases will be taken care of.

He said the state government, in cooperation with the Centre, is trying the best to compensate the local people for land wherever acquired by the defence establishment. The chief minister welcomed the decision for a Sainik School in

the state and said that it will bring people of the frontier state closer to the Army and youths of the state will find new career opportunities in the defence forces.

Dhingra informed the chief minister about various development and welfare activities undertaken by the Army in the border areas.

He said the Army also plans to open schools for border people with support from local community, the release added.

Flood situation worsens in Manipur

Five persons electrocuted in Assam in three days

Northeast traders embrace GST despite digital challenges

The Oil Tanker Drivers' Union on Saturday distributed relief material to the flood affected people. Other voluntary organisations are also helping people who are staying in the relief camps.

Following a breach in the Kongba river vast areas in the Thongju assembly constituency have been inundated. The busy Singjamei-Kongba road has been flooded and no vehicle can pass through. Vast areas in Bishnupur district are also under water.

Fish farmers say that they have suffered heavy losses as their fish farms had been flooded and the fish washed away. Hundreds of thousands of farmers are suffering losses as their paddy fields have been flooded for weeks.

Chief Minister Biren said, "The government

shall distribute seedlings free of cost to the farmers."

"The government plan is to distribute an improved variety of paddy seedling which can be harvested in three months," he added.

However officials told IANS that as the central government is not releasing immediate funds, there is not much progress in the government plan.

Meanwhile, several relief camp residents claimed that no minister or official has visited them and that no food or relief material were distributed. People residing in the relief camp at Hiyangthang Tarahei had appealed to the government to provide them with relief material. Free medical camps were held in some flood affected villages to check the outbreak of water-borne diseases.

Heroin worth Rs one lakh seized

LAND FOR SALE

09612109915

India,Bangladesh to construct bridge along Mizoram border aIzawl, July 8 (IaNS): India and Bangladesh have decided to construct a bridge over Mizoram's Khawthlangtuipui river to facilitate trade and improve communication between the two neighbours, an official said here on Saturday.

"Officials of India and Bangladesh held a meeting on Friday evening at Tlabung town (Mamit district) and discussed to speed up the works for the proposed bridge between the two countries across Khawthlangtuipui river (also known as Karnaphuli river)," Mizoram Industries and Commerce Department Director J. Hmingthanmawia said.

Several bilateral issues were also discussed in the meeting, he added.

Bangladeshi official Rowshan Ara Khanam, who led his country's delegation, said : "The proposed bridge would be an important linkage between India and Bangladesh. The Bangladesh government has taken a number of steps to make it a reality."

"Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had given approval to construct the bridge and linking roads," the official added.

The Mamit district is adjacent to Khagrachari district of Chittagong hill tracts of southeast Bangladesh.

Railways advisor Dibbanjan Roy, who also attended the meeting, said that the bridge would not only improve road connectivity between the two regions but also strengthen the ties between the people of the two countries living both sides of the borders.

It has been proposed that the location of the bridge be made as closer as possible to the nearest land custom station in the Bangladesh side.

After the meeting, officials of the two countries inspected possible locations to construct the bridge.

Mizoram shares a 318 km unfenced border with Bangladesh.

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that Lalmuanpuii (22) of Champhai town was arrested for alleged possession of the contraband worth around Rs one lakh.

He said that the seized heroin was reportedly smuggled from neighbouring Myanmar with which

Mizoram shares 404-km long porous international border.

The accused was remanded to custody and booked under relevant sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985.

4

sundaY 09•07•2017

nagaland

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

WDLSA conduct training for Gaon Bura and Dobashis Wokha, July 8 (MExn): Wokha District Legal Services Authority (WDLSA) organized workshop cum training for Gaon Bura and Dobashis under Wokha district at Town Hall here on July 7.

Around 50 participants, including T. Lanusenla Longkumer, NCS, SDO (C) Wokha, attended the programme.

Speaking on Village Council Act with emphasis on NALSA (Protection and Enforcement of Tribal Rights) Scheme 2015, Joshua Sheqi, Legal Aid Counsel and Trainer NSLSA informed that the scheme is aimed at ensuring access to justice to the tribal people in India.

He apprised that several legal rights guaranteed to the tribal people are the Scheduled Tribes and other Tribal Forest Dwellers (Recognition of

Forest Rights) Act, 2006, the Schedule Caste and Schedule Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009, the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act 1996 and Fifth and Sixth Schedule of the Constitution of India.

Ashu Theyo, Legal Aid Counsel and Trainer NSLSA, who spoke on Criminal Law (Procedure and law of evidence with emphasis on NALSA-Legal Services to the mentally ill and mentally disabled persons) Scheme 2015, said that the objective of the scheme is to ensure that the mentally ill or disabled are not stigmatized and they are dealt with as

individuals who are to be helped to enforce all rights they are entitled to and as assured to them by law.

Neignguvoto Kruse, Legal Aid Council and Trainer NSLSA while speaking on welfare scheme with emphasis on NALSA (Legal services to the senior citizen) Scheme 2015 said that under the scheme the persons above the age of 60 would be regarded as senior citizens.

He informed that to outline the basic rights and benefits that should be accorded to senior citizens and ensure access to various governmental schemes and programmes to the senior citizens are some of the objectives of the scheme.

Keynote address was delivered by Seyielenuo Mezhu, NJS, Judicial Magistrate First Class and Secretary WDLSA.

Training on Jhum field management, IPM in soybean

participants with resource persons during the training held at kupza village on July 4.

Mokokchung, July 8 (MExn): ATMA Ongpangkong (North) Block, Mokokchung in collaboration with the Department of Agriculture, Mokokchung organized a one day training on Jhum field management and IPM (integrated pest management) in soybean under NMOOP-MMI at Kupza village on July 4.

Resource person Dr. Lanunochetla, Subject Matter Specialist (SMS) from the district Agriculture department spoke to the farmers on the occurrence of pests

and diseases in jhum field and its organic management. She also highlighted the ill practices of farming like usage of DDT, salt and pesticides in Jhum which result in resurgence of new pests, and their effects on human health.

Integrated pest management in soybean, vegetables and orchards were thoroughly discussed, a press release stated. Inputs like soybean, knapsack sprayer, agrilime, roban, and neem oil were distributed for free to the participants.

Training on Naga Mircha and mushroom cultivation Mokokchung, July 8 (MExn): Two-day training on Naga Mircha and mushroom cultivation under MIDH 2016-17 was organized by the Department of Horticulture, Government of Nagaland in collaboration with the Jangpetkong Students’ Conference from July 6 to 7.

The main resource person of the training was Senti Longchar (DK), Horticulture Officer. He gave an overview of the training’s importance to the participants. During the technical sessions, he emphasized on the importance of kitchen gardening for self sufficiency and better income generation. He pointed out that consumption of king chilli is very less in Mokokchung district, thus, the cultivation of the crop is not in commercial scale, a press release informed. He suggested that even if the consumption rate is low, they could go for commercial production of the crop to supply outside the state. Longchar also gave a presentation on various nursery raising and cultiva-

tion techniques on king chilli in jhum fields.

On the second day, the key topic was on cultivation of oyster mushroom for rural livelihood. Longchar said that oyster mushroom cultivation is the easiest and most economical practice, which could be carried out in the rural areas for their better income and livelihood.

The trainees saw a hands-on demonstration on oyster mushroom cultivation which was conducted by Longer Walling from State Horticulture Nursery, Dimapur.

Longnyei, EAC Alongkima also encouraged the participants to take up various crop cultivations suitable in the area and further challenged the cultivators that distance and transportation should not be an excuse for commercialization of potential crops.

The programme was chaired by Narola, Women co-ordinator, JSC. The training concluded with giving away of certificates and distribution of spawns to the participants.

bethel baptist school conducted an educators training programme for the teaching faculty at sbC conference hall on July 6. wungchipem raman, Assistant director of mount hermon higher secondary school and Athem longkumer, psychologist, state mental institute, kohima were the resource persons.

Assembly of god lotha Church kohima women department organized two consecutive seminars - cutting & tailoring and cake & dessert making at AglCk on June 22 and 29 respectively in culminating with the event during the practical month. rose Jami and neithonuo kikon were the resource persons.

Classroom cum auditorium at ghss longkhim, constructed under rmsA, was inaugurated by i. sashi Ao, ddeo tuensang.

inner wheel Club of dimapur donated a wheel barrow and a water tank to the district hospital, dimapur on July 6. the barrow was required for collection of hospital waste, while the water tank was required for pay and use toilet of the hospital, a press release sunday school students of Akuhaito town baptist Church seen at hammock resort, informed. wokha as part of Children's Camp held from July 3-5.

leisure

CROSSWORD # 3997

SUDOKU

Answer Number # 3993

std code: 03862

DiMaPUR ACROSS 1. Vipers 5. Pursue 10. Iridescent gem 14. Heavy, durable furniture wood 15. Fancy 16. Common hop 17. Decorative 19. Give temporarily 20. 56 in Roman numerals 21. Malicious burning 22. Past tense of “will” 23. A teaching discourse 25. Mends 27. Old World vine 28. Defamed 31. Redress 34. Fortuneteller’s card 35. Mistake 36. Relocate 37. A group of lions 38. Largest continent 39. Era 40. Trolleys 41. Pantywaist 42. Spears 44. Faster than light 45. Upper-class people (British) 46. A woolen fabric 50. French farewell 52. New Zealand native 54. An Old Testament king 55. Flippant 56. A 20th century art movement 58. Clairvoyant 59. List components 60. Curved molding 61. Countercurrent 62. Monster 63. Low in pitch DOWN 1. Coral island 2. Wait on 3. Terror 4. Calypso offshoot 5. Bright red

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

Game Number # 3994

withee bible College held its 15th fresher’s day on July 6 at the college campus. the programme started with invocation prayer by heni phom, lecturer. rev. dr. vikheshe Chishi, founder gave a short exhortation, inakali yeptho, Assistant general secretary gave the vote of thanks, and it closed with prayer by klerkson manipur, lecturer cum boys warden.

6. A German medieval guild 7. Car 8. Criteria 9. Snake-like fish 10. Elongated square or circle 11. Piety 12. A Freudian stage 13. Extend credit 18. Purple shade 22. Court order 24. Prong 26. Found in some lotions 28. Wounds 29. Twin sister of Ares 30. Heavy cart 31. Nursemaid 32. Roman robe 33. Overly fatigued 34. Transubstantiate 37. Academician 38. Afflicts 40. Curdled soybean milk 41. Stripes 43. Verse 44. Woods 46. Nematodes 47. Subarctic coniferous forests 48. S S S S 49. Gentlewomen 50. Church alcove 51. Accomplishment 53. District 56. Bro or sis 57. Toss

Apply bAttle blonde bother breed CApAble Colt Cone CurtAil dispute drAft dust every floAt glide group honor house lips mediA

232224

emergency

229529 229474

mh hospital

227930 231081

fire brigade

faith hospital

228846

naga hospital

2222916

shamrock hospital

228254

oking hospital

2243339

Zion hospital

231864 224117 227337

bethel nursing home

2224202

northeast shuttles

08974997923

police Control room

228400

Police Traffic Control

232106

east police station

227607

west police station

232181

Cihsr (referral hospital)

242555 242533

dimapur hospital

police station fire brigade

R

option previous profit referenCe region right slide smile sport squAd stone tAre tempt thief throw tote truCk vowel world

D

222246 222491

KOHiMa

kohimA ps/oCs Contact numbers 8575045501

Officer-in-Charge 8575045510 south ps

8575045502

Officer-in-Charge 8575045520 Zubza ps

224041 248011

8575045508

Officer-in-Charge 8575045518

Apollo hospital info Centre 230695/ 9402435652 railway

131/228404

Airport indian Airlines

229366 242441 225212

Chiephobozou ps 8575045506 Officer-in-Charge 8575045516 tseminyu ps

8575045507

Officer-in-Charge 8575045517 khuzama ps

8575045505

Officer-in-Charge 8575045515

nikos hospital and research Centre

232032, 231031

kezocha ps

nagaland multispecialty health & research Centre

248302, 09856006026

women Cell

eden medical Centre

248722 /248288, 9615945510

Control room

S

E

A

R

C

std code: 0370 2222952

north ps

Chumukedima fire brigade 282777

O

std code: 03871

(formerly senapati)

Civil hospital

Answer to Crossword 3996

W

TaHaMZaM

H

8575045549

Officer-in-Charge 8575045538 8575045509

Officer-in-Charge 8575045519 8575045500 (Emergency No. – 100)

FiRE STaTiONS

kohimA south: 0370-2222952/ 101 (O) 9402003086 (OC) kohimA north: 7085924114 (O) dimApur: 03862-232201/ 101 (O) 9856156876 (OC) ChumukedimA: 7085982102 (O) 8732810051 (OC) wokhA: 03860-242215/101 (O) 8974322879 (OC) mokokChung: 0369-2226225/ 101 (O) 8415830232 (OC) phek: 8414853765 (O) 8413822476(OC) Zunheboto: 03867-280304/ 101 (O) 9436422730 (OC) tuensAng: 8414853766 (O) 9856163601 (OC) mon: 03869-251222/ 101 (O) 9862130954 (OC) kiphire: 8414853767 (O) 9436261577 (OC) peren: 7085189932 (O) 9856311205 (OC) longleng: 7085924113 (O) 9862414264 (OC) we4 women helpline 08822911011 WOMEN helpline 181 CHiLD welfAre Committee Toll free No. 1098 childline

MOKOKCHUNG

std code: 0369

police station 1 police station 2 police station kobulong police station tuli police station Changtongya police station mangkolemba Civil hospital

9485232688 9485232689 9485232690 9485232693 9485232694 9485232695 2226216

woodland nursing home

2226263

hotel metsüpen (tourist lodge) 2226373/ 2229343

CURRENCY NOTES buy (rs) sell (rs)

us dollars sterling pound hong kong dollar Australian dollar singapore dollar Canadian dollar Japanese yen euro thai baht korean won uAe dirham (Aed) Chinese yuan

63.04 80.26 7.82 47.88 45.38 47.6 56.12 70.86 1.79 0.0537 16.61 8.91

65.88 84.14 8.71 50.22 47.60 49.91 59.28 74.29 2.00 0.0598 18.50 9.92

sunday 09•07•2017

NAGALAND

DAN has surrendered Bill Lotha appointed national secy of BJP ST Morcha to BJP and RSS: NPCC DiMapur, July 8 (Mexn): A day after the NPF led DAN government extended unanimous support to the NDA presidential nominee, the Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) today criticized it stating the DAN government has completely surrendered to the BJP and RSS. “The people have not voted for BJP-RSS. The people have voted regional party to power. However, NPF led DAN has finished its regional identity. They have completely surrendered to BJP and RSS,” stated a press statement from K. Therie, NPCC president While the decision to support the presidential candidate may please BJP and RSS, NPCC stated, “it has insulted the Christian society of Nagaland gravely.”

The statement added, “It is hard to believe that Baptist MLAs do agree with what they have decided.

If they are for Jesus, they should not be doing this.”

It further alleged that Ram Nath Kovind, the NDA presidential candidate, is an RSS cadre. “His pictures circulated in social media prove he is an RSS man. Ram Nath once said Christians and Muslims are alien to the Indian Nation. This statement proves beyond doubt that he is also anti-Christian and anti-Muslim,” NPCC added. Pointing out that Nagaland community has protested against persecution of Christians, destruction of churches across India and ban on beef, it said, “ignoring the cry of the voters they (DAN) are blinded by money and power.”

new Delhi, July 8 (Mexn): The National Schedule Tribe (ST) Morcha, BJP Central Office, New Delhi has announced the appointment of Hayithung Bill Lotha as a National Secretary, ST Morcha, BJP Central by the National President ST Morcha, Ram Vichar Netam (MP) with due consent of Amit Shah, National President, BJP. A press release from Anita Meena, National Media Incharge, BJP National ST Morcha office mentioned that with the induction of Hayithung Bill Lotha in a “very influential and effective party role”, the North-East party workers are gaining a foothold and voice in the organisational set-up in BJP Central, New Delhi.

Hayithung Bill Lotha Hayithung Bill Lotha (left) with the President of BJP Nahas been formerly a Na- tional ST Morcha, Ram Vichar Netam on July 6 in New tional Secretary/ North Delhi.

East Incharge, Yuva Morcha 2013-2016 (Youth Wing of BJP), and has been actively engaged in party activities since 2012 when he was a law student in Delhi University, the release said. He joined Akhil Bharatiya Vishwa Parishad (ABVP), students’ wing of RSS in 2003 and was involved in it till 2007. Since then he has worked in the BJP party holding various responsibilities.

The release described Bill as “a well-educated man, articulate, a humble personality, a very effective and excellent organiser and party worker, energetic, dynamic and possessing an innate political skills.”

He has a promising political future and with the appointment, North East will benefit a more inclusive, closer and emotional connection with the BJP headquarters, it added.

Health workers oriented on Population Stabilization Fortnight

In a noble initiative, personnel of Traffic Police Kohima fill potholes along the main town road of Kohima on July 8.

‘Folktales of Wolam (Pangsha)’ released DiMapur, July 8 (Mexn): A book titled ‘Folktales of Wolam (Pangsha)’ authored by Putchong Thai was released by Prof.

N Das, Department of English, Nagaland University at NU Kohima Campus, Meriema on June 27.

Wolam Nyukyan (New Pangsha) Students’ Union (WNYSU) also attended the book release programme. WNYSU in a press

release issued by its President Hangching M and General Secretary Khulem conveyed gratitude to the Department of English, Nagaland University for taking up all the initiatives even to the extent of organizing book launch.

The Union also commended Putchong Thai for his “strong commencement in bringing out our rich convention from the

PTYS organizes cleanliness drive across Phek Town phek, July 8 (Mexn): The Phek Town Youth Society (PTYS) under the ‘Clean Green Operation’ picked up scattered polythene, wrappers and other waste materials, desilted puddles, pruned hedges and mowed yards to control mosquitoes larvae in stagnant water across the town on July 8.

The cleanliness drive, which covered 11 colonies of Phek Town, was participated by about 160 youths.

According to a press release, the Society sensitized the public not to

throw waste materials hither and thither, rather maintain a dustbin in every nook and corner and prevent other sources of stagnant water to avoid malaria disease. The youths also cleared weeds and grasses to nurture planted trees and seasonal flowers in the past few days.

Meanwhile, the PTYS president, Neihite Akami has requested all the youth volunteers of Phek Town to be prepared to clear up jungles at Phek Town tourist guest house on July 22.

roots through your book ‘Folktales of Wolam (Pangsha)’ and also being the first writer amongst the village. We strike a chord to keep your inspiration to explore and enthusiasm in your career.”

The book will be available at Scholar Book House, Ground Floor of Khedi Market, Kohima and Eastern Computer Printing Centre, Noklak.

peren, July 8 (Mexn): The Chief Medical Officer’s office, Peren district held its District Level Family Planning (FP) review meeting cum orientation on observance of World Population Day and Population Stabilization Fortnight on July 7 at the CMO conference hall here.

The meeting was attended by District Program Officers, Medical Officers, ANMs, GNMs, Pharmacist, Vaccinators, CMOs establishment staff, District Program Management Unit and Block Program Management Unit Staff, stated a press release issued by Pezanguno Celine Secü, District Media Officer, CMO office, Peren.

The CMO, Dr. Denis Hangsing highlighted about the Population Stabilization Fortnight which will be observed from July 11 till 24. He requested the health workers to submit the reports regarding the observance on time, which is on a daily basis. He further urged them to moti-

vate and sensitize at the grassroots level during the fortnight.

Dr. Khrielasanuo, DPO UIP/RCH briefed on the guidelines to be followed during the fortnight. She urged the Medical Officers and health workers to be in their place of posting to provide quality service delivery. All the members were asked to carry out intensive awareness about Family Planning and Health Units to conduct counseling during the OPD hours, provide free FP service delivery such as distribution of condoms, OCP, E-pill, IUCD insertion and Lap Ligation. Inter personal communication is to be conducted by the ASHAs in all the villages and Focus Group discussion will be held in all the four blocks.

She also informed that Lap Ligation will be done on July 17, 18, 24 and 25, 2017 at CHC Jalukie and on July 19 at District Hospital Peren. She urged everyone to work in coordination to achieve the target.

DPM Elizabeth reminded all the health units to sumit PAN card photocopy at the earliest. She also informed that the referral transport amount for JSSK Rs 250/ has been enhanced to Rs. 500/ since October 2016. Therefore, she requested to submit the statement of expenditure accordingly. She also informed that the funds for VHND have been released in all the four blocks.

Dr. Tiala, Dy. CMO highlighted the errors in the HMIS reports and that the monthly reports quality is degrading. She highlighted the areas that need to be verified and ensured to be maintained in the reports.

She urged the health workers to be sincere and be responsible. She earnestly requested the Medical Officers to cross check the reports before submitting and also to sign them.

IEC materials, condoms and contraceptives pills, pregnancy test kit were distributed to the health units.

25th Summer Bible School held at CHSS DiMapur, July 8 (Mexn): The 25th Summer Bible School, organised jointly by Christian Higher Secondary School, Dimapur and Town Baptist Church, Dimapur, came to a colourful close on July 8 at Covenant Hall, CHSS Campus.

More than 700 participants, including 600 plus children, were blessed in the 4-day long programme which was based on the theme, “Rooted in God’s Word’, according to a press release. Bible lessons, handwork/craftwork, workshop (dance, singing, beat boxing, drama, sign language) kept all the participants occupied.

Winners of the inter house quiz competition conducted at Sainik School Punglwa on July 7 receive the trophy.

A total of twelve cadets participated in the contest – a team of two cadets each representing the six mother houses of the school. In a tough fought competition Saramati house represented by Cadet Ravi Kumar and Cadet Dongwang Lowang emerged as winners and lifted the coveted trophy of the inter-house quiz competition 2017-

18. Doyang house represented by Cadet Tekapong Longkumer and Cadet Lenmin Perme stood at second position followed

by Cadet Rishu Raj and Cadet Chiging Chilayang of Tizu House in the third position.

Gp Capt Sanjay Gaekwad, Principal SSP gave away the certificates and the trophy to the winners.

MALT to visit govt offices MangkoleMba, July 8 (Mexn): The Mangkolemba Ao Lanur Telongjem (MALT) will visit all the government offices in Mangkolemba Town from July 10 to 31.

Therefore, a press release from MALT president, I. Tia Jamir and general secretary, Sentimeren Imchen has informed all the heads of department and their staff at Mangkolemba to be present in the office during office hour.

KROS College visits District Jail, Kohima kohiMa, July 8 (Mexn): The Department of Sociology, KROS College, Kohima visited District Jail in Kohima on July 6. The purpose of the visit, according to a press release, was to educate and sensitize the students about the life and plight of the inmates who are in solitary confinement. The students and faculty members were briefed by the jail authorities on the activities and facilities offered to the inmates. Interactive session with the inmates was an eye opener and educative for the students, it added.

Mokokchung DYC supports CBI probe demand Mokokchung, July 8 (Mexn): The Mokokchung District Youth Congress (DYC) has fully endorsed the statement made by Nagaland Pradesh Youth Congress (NPYC) demanding the intervention of Governor of Nagaland PB Acharya to recommend CBI probe into the “rampant backdoor appointments” in the Home department and misappropriation of funds for police modernization.

In a press release issued by its President Merentemsu, the DYC also demanded to sack the Nagaland Home Minister.

Mon Officers’ Club donates to Wangkhao College Mon, July 8 (Mexn): Mon Officers’ Club donated 30 sets of desks and benches to Wangkhao Government College recently. The donation was mobilised among the officers who came forward with genuine concern about acute shortage of basic needs in the college, stated a press release. The college had significant increase in enrolment this session and had to create additional section, resulting in the need for more seating provisions. Through the press release, the principal, teachers, students and parents expressed gratitude to the donors. In the meantime, the college also appreciated the Konyak Students' Union (KSU) for donating 10 sets of ceiling fans to the college. Meanwhile, Wangkhao community urged for more of such community support towards the growth of the college in the days to come.

Summer camp at Chessore Tuensang, July 8 (Mexn): Sangto Christian School Chessore commenced its 2-day summer camp on June 8 under the aegis of Yimchunger Baptist Boru Amukhongdo. Organized under the theme ‘The fear of the lord is the beginning of knowledge’ (Proverbs1:7), the children will attend spiritual awakening and career guidance programmes during the camp which will end on July 9. The resource persons for the camp are Khalenmew, Mission Secretary; Lakiumong, Youth Secretary; Tsukhumla CEP and Tushila P. A press release from SCS headmaster, Keyoungkhum informed that the introductory programme on July 8 began with invoking God’s grace by Pastor Toki Allen.

Tsukhumla CEP chaired the programme, while the school headmaster Keyoungkhum welcomed the participants and lauded the sensibility in organizing such inclusive programme which he said is the need for people of rural area where there is poor human resource.

DRYO elects new officials DiMapur, July 8 (Mexn): The Dimapur Rengma Youth Organisation (DRYO) has elected officials of its Executive Council for the tenure 2017-2020. Ruchuyhun Keppen was elected as president, Aga Rengma – general secretary, Asho Seb – finance secretary, and Noel Thong as info & publicity secretary among others. The organization also elected 40 members as range representatives, informed a press release from DRYO president, Ruchuyhun Keppen and assistant general secretary, A. Shyerhunlo Lorin.

Participants at the 25th Summer Bible School, organised jointly by Christian Higher Secondary School, and Town Baptist Church, Dimapur.

At the closing service, the highlight was a special action song presented by the CHSS Special Needs children. Vezachilü Sakh-

rie, Director of the SBS Ministry gave a report of the SBS 2017 and Pastor Scott from Oklahoma, USA shared the Bible message.

The speakers from the students were Keyiesakpe and Angel Pradhan. The programme was chaired by Renbeni and Aphrezo.

Sainik School inter house quiz contest NSRLM trains staff on livelihood perspective punglwa, July 8 (Mexn): To encourage students to look beyond their textual knowledge and to establish a relationship between theory and application of the learnt concepts, inter house quiz competition was conducted at Sainik School Punglwa (SSP) on July 7.

SSP in a press release stated the quiz contest is one of the important annual co-curricular activities conducted with an objective of team building, broadening cadets’ horizon of knowledge and at the same time preparing them to appear in UPSC, National Defence Academy examination wherein general awareness of cadets are tested in different fields. The event is also important as the position obtained in the quiz competition is added to the most coveted Cock House Trophy presented to the best house of the year, it said.

MEx FILE

kohiMa, July 8 (Mexn): Nagaland State Rural Livelihoods Mission (NSRLM) conducted training on Livelihoods Perspective for the District Functional Specialists (Livelihoods) and the Assistant District Program Managers at SIRD, Kohima from July 6-8.

It was conducted with the support of national resource persons empanelled by the Ministry of Rural Development and resource persons from National Support Organization PRADAN. The objective of the training, according to a press release, was to equip the Mission staffs to understand the concepts of livelihoods and the various aspects that need to be considered for effective livelihoods planning.

Delivering the keynote address, Athel O. Lotha, Mission Director, NSRLM mentioned that one’s technical knowledge on agriculture or livestock gained from universities may not fully empower a person for direct implementation

Meetings & AppointMents Supply Colony Council meeting Supply Colony Council, Dimapur has informed all members of the council, mothers’ union and youth front of the colony that in pursuance of previous meeting resolution, a combined meeting will be held on July 10, 3:00 pm at Children’s Park to discuss the following agendas: To approve recently constituted youth body and its title; maintenance of resting sheds in the colony; to form Colony level Sanitation Committee; to finalize colony core group for Clean Election. Meanwhile, the Colony Council in a press release expressed happiness to the residents who came out in a large number, specially youths and women, on Social Work Day held on July 3 in response to the ‘Cleanest Colony Competition’ initiated by DMC.

Community sensitization prog

Athel O. Lotha, Additional Secretary, RD and Mission Director NSRLM delivering the keynote address.

of livelihoods intervention since there are various dynamics involved in planning and execution.

She therefore urged the Mission staffs to take advantage of the training, capacitate oneself and translate the knowledge to the grassroots people. She also stated the need to genuinely understand and feel the challenges faced by the rural people so as to address

those challenges through interventions of NSRLM. As part of the training, field visit to Khuzama village under Jakhama Resource Block was held for field exercise of the classroom learning of the previous day.

The third day training involved integration of classroom and field learning to develop further plan of action for the 9 Resource Blocks of NSRLM, the release added.

The Department of Social Welfare, Government of Nagaland is organizing community sensitization/ awareness on various schemes and programmes under Social Welfare Department in Dimapur and Chumukedima as per the following schedule: July 10, 10:00 am at Dimapur Town Hall – All GBs, Village Council Chairmen, and a women representative under Nuiland CDPO (urban) and Kuhuboto area have been requested to attend the same; July 11, 10:00 am at Chumukedima Town Hall – All GBs, VCCs and a women representative under CDPO (Rural) Medziphema and Dhansiripar block have been requested to attend the programme. A press release from the department’s District Programme Officer, Dimapur, S Nezolu Rhakho informed that TA/DA will be provided to the village representatives concerned.

ABBNSS Nagaland meeting The Akhil Bhartiya Bhrastachar Nirmulan Sangharsha Samiti (ABBNSS), Nagaland unit has convened a state level meeting on July 15 at its office near Head Post Office, Kohima to discuss the restructuring and functioning of the office in the state level, informed a press release from R. Sopu Angami, president.

6

The Chalkboard

SunDAY 09•07•2017

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

_____________________________ Because Children Matters

Being Special

The Special Mother Erma Bombeck

D

id you ever wonder how mothers of disabled children were chosen?

Somehow I visualize God hovering over the earth selecting his instruments of propagation with great care and deliberation. As He observes, He instructs His angels to make notes in a giant ledger.

"This one gets a daughter. The Patron saint will be Cecelia" "This one gets twins.

The Patron saint will be Matthew"

"This one gets a son.

The Patron saint.....give her Gerard. He's used to profanity" Finally He passes a name to an angel and smiles. "Give her a disabled child".

The angel is curious.

"Why this one God? She's so happy" "Exactly," smiles God. "Could I give a disabled child to a mother who does not know laughter?

That would be cruel!"

"But has she patience?" asks the angel.

"I don't want her to have too much patience or

Farmer Toilet Paper Roll Craft

she will drown in a sea of sorrow and despair. Once the shock and resentment wears off, she'll handle it.

I watched her today, she has that feeling of self and independence that is so necessary in a mother. You see, the child I'm going to give her has his own world.

She has to make him live in her world and that's not going to be easy."

"But Lord, I don't think she even believes in you" God smiles, "No matter, I can fix that. This one is perfect - she has just enough selfishness" The angel gasps - "Self-

ishness? is that a virtue?"

God nods. "If she can't separate herself from the child occasionally she won't survive. Yes here is a woman whom I will bless with a child less than perfect. She doesn't realize it yet, but she is to be envied.

She will never take for granted a 'spoken word'.

She will never consider any 'step' ordinary. When her child says "Momma" for the first time she will be present at a miracle and will know it. I will permit her to see clearly the things I see...ignorance, cruelty and prejudice...

and allow her to rise above them. She will never be alone. I will be at her side every minute of every day of her life because she is doing my work as surely as if she is here by my side" "And what about her Patron saint?" asks the angel, his pen poised in mid air.

God smiles "A mirror will suffice"

Dinosaur Facts for Kids

Lets Get

Busy

T

his is a simple color, cut and paste paper craft that uses a toilet paper roll to make it three dimensional -fun for young children to make and play with.

Materials: • a toilet paper roll, • printer, • glue, • scissors, • something to colour with, • a piece of paper.

find the differences

Instructions: • Print out the template of choice.

• Color the pieces if using the B&W version. Give the kids the chance to be creative and let them use their favorite tools -- colored pencils, crayons, markers, pastels or paints.

Whatever inspires them today.

• Carefully cut out the craft templates. This may require some adult assistance for some of the tougher pieces.

• Glue the large rectangular piece around the toilet paper tube.

• Glue on the overalls.

• Glue on the arms, legs and head.

• Glue the hat onto the head and the pitchfork into one of the hands.

Templates: • Close the template window after printing to return to this screen.

• Set page margins to zero if you have trouble fitting the template on one page (FILE, PAGE SETUP or FILE, PRINTER SETUP in most browsers).

Riddles and Brain Teasers for Kids Q: What does this mean? I RIGHT I

A: Right between the eyes.

Q: What 5-letter word becomes shorter when you add two letters to it?

A: Short.

Additional Reading: 50 School Lunch Box Ideas

Q: Imagine you’re in a room that is filling with water. There are no windows or doors. How do you get out?

A: Stop imagining.

Q: The more you take, the more you leave behind.

What are they?

A: Footprints.

Q: What two keys can’t open any door?

A: A monkey and a donkey.

Q: What invention lets you look right through a wall?

W

hile dinosaurs came a long time before us humans, fossils and modern technology have helped us piece together what dinosaurs may have looked like and even how they might have behaved.

Read on for a wide range of cool dinosaur facts that are perfect for kids.

• The word dinosaur comes from the Greek language and means ‘terrible lizard’. The word was coined

by English paleontologist Richard Owen in 1842 and was meant to refer to Dinosaurs impressive size rather than their scary appearance.

• Dinosaurs ruled the Earth for over 160 million years, from the Triassic period around 230 million years ago through the Jurassic period and until the end of the Cretaceous period around 65 million years ago.

• The time period from 250 million years ago until around 65 million years ago is known as the Mesozoic Era. It is often referred to as the Age of the Dinosaurs because most dinosaurs developed and became extinct during this time.

• It is believed that dinosaurs lived on Earth until around 65 million years ago when a mass extinction occurred.

• Scientists believe that the event leading to the extinction may have been a massive asteroid impact or huge volcanic activity. Events such as these could have blocked out sunlight and significantly changed the Earth’s ecology.

• The first dinosaur to be formally named was the Megalosaurus, back in 1824.

• A person who studies dinosaurs is known as a paleontologist.

• Rather than being carnivores (meat eaters), the largest dinosaurs such as the Brachiosaurus

•

•

• •

and Apatosaurus were actually herbivores (plant eaters).

To help fight meat eaters such as the Allosaurus or Spinosaurus, many plant eaters had natural weapons at their disposal. Examples of this include the spikes on the tail of the Stegosaurus and the three horns attached to the front of the Triceratops’s head shield.

Pterodactyls are not dinosaurs, they were flying reptiles that lived during the age of dinosaurs but by definition they do not fall into the same category. The same goes for water based reptiles such as Plesiosaurs.

Birds descended from a type of dinosaurs known as theropods.

Despite being long extinct, dinosaurs are frequently featured in the media. One of the more memorable examples of this is Michael Crichton’s 1990 book Jurassic Park. Adapted to movie in 1993, the story features cloned dinosaurs brought to life with the help of DNA found in mosquitoes trapped in amber.

Match the following

FAITH LEAF 7 INSPIRATIONAL STORIES, MESSAGES, POEMS & SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCES

SunDAY 09•07•2017

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

J

esus' birth usually gets far more attention than its role in the New Testament warrants.

Christmas looms large in our culture, outshining even Easter in the popular mind. Yet without Matthew 1-2 and Luke 1-2 we would know nothing about it. Paul's gospel includes Jesus' Davidic descent (Rom. 1:3), but apart from that could exist without mention of his birth.

One can be justified by faith with no knowledge of it. Likewise, John's wonderful theological edifice has no need of it: God's glory is revealed not in the manger; but on the cross.

If you try to express any New Testament theology without Jesus' death and resurrection, you will find it cannot be done. "Man shall live for evermore," says the song, "because of Christmas Day." No, replies the New Testament. Because of Calvary, Easter and Pentecost.

Nevertheless, the birth stories have become a test case in various controversies. If you believe in miracles, you believe in Jesus' miraculous birth; if you don't, you don't.

Both sides turn the question into a shibboleth, not for its own sake but to find out who's in and who's out.

Problem: "miracle," as used in these controversies, is not a biblical category. The God of the Bible is not a normally absent God who sometimes "intervenes." This God is always present and active, often surprisingly so.

Likewise, if you believe the Bible is "true," you will believe the birth stories; if you don't, you won't.

Again, the birth stories are insignificant in themselves; they function as a test for beliefs about the Bible.

The birth stories have also functioned as a test case for views of sexuality. Some believers in the virginal conception align this with a low view of sexuality and a high view of perpetual virginity. They believe the story not because of what it says about Jesus, but because of what it says about sex-namely, that it's something God wouldn't want to get mixed up in. This, too, has its mirror image: those who cannot imagine anything good about abstinence insist that Mary must have been sexually active.

More significantly, the birth stories have played a role within different views of the incarnation. Those who have emphasized Jesus' divinity have sometimes made the virginal conception central. Those who have emphasized Jesus' humanity have often felt that the virginal conception would mark him off from the rest of us.

None of these arguments bears much relation to what either Matthew or Luke actually says. But before we turn to them, two more preliminary remarks.

First, we are of course speak ing of the virginal conception of Jesus, not, strictly, of the "virgin birth."

Even if I come to of the virginal conception of Jesus, not, strictly, of the "virgin birth." Even if I come to believe in the former; the latter would remain a different sort of thing altogether. Neither; of course, should be confused with the "immaculate

God's Way of Acting N.T. Wright

conception," a Roman Catholic dogma about the conception not of Jesus, but of Mary.

Second, some things must be put in a "suspense account," in Marcus Borg's happy phrase, while others are sorted out. The birth narratives have no impact on my reconstruction of Jesus' public agendas and his mind-set as he went to the cross.

There might just be a case for saying that if his birth was as Matthew and Luke describe it, and if Mary had told him about it, my argument about Jesus' vocation to do and be what in scripture YHWH does and is might look slightly different. But as a historian I cannot use the birth stories within an argument about the rest of the gospel narratives.

I can, however, run the process the other way. Because I am convinced that the creator God raised Jesus bodily from the dead, and because I am convinced that Jesus was and is the embodiment of this God, Israel's God, my worldview is forced to reactivate various things in the suspense account, the birth narratives included. There are indeed more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in postEnlightenment metaphysics. The "closed continuum" of cause and effect is a modernist myth. The God who does not "intervene" from outside but is always present and active within the world, sometimes shockingly, may well have been thus active on this occasion. It is all very well to get on one's high metaphysical horse and insist that God cannot behave like this, but we do not know that ahead of time. Nor will the high moral horse do any better insisting that God ought not to do things like this, because they send the wrong message about sexuality or because divine parentage gave Jesus an unfair start over the rest of us. Such positions produce a cartoon picture: the mouse draws itself up to its full height, puts its paws on its hips and gives the elephant a good dressing down.

The stories in question are complex and controversial. I simply highlight certain features.

Matthew's story, told from Joseph's point of view, reminds one of various biblical birth stories, such as that of Samson in Judges 13. Matthew's whole hook is about the scriptures being fulfilled in Jesus. The angel, the dream, the command not to be afraid, the righteous couple doing what they are told-all is familiar. Like Samson, the promised and provided child has a dangerous public future: here, the true king of the Jews is born under the nose of the wicked king, Herod. This is a major theme in Matthew's Gospel. His picture of Jesus' messiahship has both feet on the ground of first-century realpolitik.

Matthew tells us that Jesus fulfills at least three biblical themes.

He brings Israel into the prom-

ised land; "Jesus" is the Greek for "Joshua." As Immanuel, he embodies God's presence with his people (Isaiah 7:14, quoted in 1:23). As the new David, he is the Messiah born at Bethlehem (2:5, fulfilling Micah 5:1-3). In the genealogy, Jesus is the point toward which Israel's long covenant history has been leading, particularly its puzzling and tragic latter phase. Matthew agrees with his Jewish contemporaries that the exile was the last significant event before Jesus; when the angel says that Jesus will "save his people from their sins" (1:21), liberation from exile is in view. Jesus, David's true descendant, will fulfill the Abrahamic covenant by undoing the exile and all that it means.

Well-known problems abound.

Why does the genealogy finish with Joseph if Matthew is going to say that he wasn't Jesus' father after all? This cannot have been a problem for Matthew or he would hardly have followed the genealogy so closely with the story of the virginal conception. It was enough that Jesus was born into the Davidic family; adoption brought legitimation.

Further, anyone can say that Matthew made it all up to fulfill Isaiah 7:14 ("the virgin shall conceive").

Since Luke doesn't quote the same passage, though, the argument looks thin. Is Bethlehem mentioned only, perhaps, because of Micah 5:2-4? Again, Luke doesn't quote the same passage, but still gets Mary to Bethlehem for the birth. Some have questioned whether Herod would really have behaved in the way described in Matthew 2; the answer, from any reader of Josephus, would be a firm yes.

One can investigate, as many have, whether there really was a star.

One can challenge the flight into Egypt as simply a back-projection from a fanciful reading of Hosea 11:1. These are the natural probing questions of the historian. As with most ancient history, of course, we cannot verify independently that which is reported only in one source. If that gives grounds for ruling it out, however, most of ancient history goes with it. Let us by all means be suspicious, but let us not be paranoid. Just because I've had a nightmare doesn't mean that there aren't burglars in the house. Just because Matthew says that something fulfilled scripture doesn't mean it didn't happen.

What then about his central claim, the virginal conception itself, dropped almost casually into the narrative, with no flourish of trumpets? Some have argued, of course, that there is instead a flourish of strumpets: Matthew has taken care to draw our attention to the peculiarities (to put it no stronger) of Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Batlisheba, presumably in order to warn us that something even stranger is coming; or perhaps to enable us, when the

news is announced, to connect it with God's strange way of operating in the past. He is hardly likely on this occasion, however, to have made up the story of Mary's being with child by the Holy Spirit in order to "fulfill'" this theme What about Luke, who tells the story from Mary's point of view?

His setting is just as Jewish as Matthew's, with verbal and narratival allusions to and echoes of the Septuagint. Like Matthew, he insists that with this story Israel's history is reaching its God-ordained climax.

But his emphasis, unlike Matthew's, is on the very Jewish point that this birth is a direct challenge to the pagan power: in other words, to Caesar. This fits with Luke's whole emphasis: the (very Jewish) gospel is for the whole world, of which Jesus is now the Lord. Israel's god is the king of the world; now, Jesus is the king of the world.

Attention has focused on the census in Luke 2:2-whether it took place and could have involved people traveling to their ancestral homes. But Luke's point has been missed. The census was the time of the great revolt-the rebellion of Judas the Galilean, which Luke not only knows about but allows Gamaliel to compare with Jesus and his movement (Acts 5:37). Luke is deliberately aligning Jesus with the Jewish kingdom-movements, the revolutions which declared that there would be "no king but God." The census is not, of course, the only query that people have raised about Luke's birth stories. Jesus' birth at Bethlehem seems to have been a puzzle to Luke, which he explains by the census, rather than something he invents for other reasons. The fact that Luke does not mention the wise men, nor Matthew the shepherds, is not a reason for doubting either; this sort of thing crops up in ancient historical sources all the time. Of course, legends surround the birth and childhood of many figures who afterwards become important. As historians we have no reason to say that this did not happen in the case of Jesus, and some reasons to say that it did. But by comparison with other legends about other figures, Matthew and Luke look, after all, quite restrained Except, of course, in the matter where the real interest centers. Matthew and Luke declare unambiguously that Mary was a virgin when Jesus was conceived. What are we to make of this? It will not do to say that we know the laws of nature and that Joseph, Mary, the early church and the evangelists did not. Mary and Joseph hadn't seen diagrams of Fallopian tubes, but that doesn't mean they didn't know where babies came from. Hence Mary's question to Gabriel (in Luke), and Joseph's determination to break the engagement (in Matthew).

Nor can we say that if we believe

this story we should believe all the other similar ones in the ancient world as well. Of course, the argument " miracles are possible therefore virginal conception is possible, therefore Jesus' virginal conception may well be true," also commits one to saying, "therefore Augustus's virginal conception may well be true."

But that is not my argument.

My argument, rather, works in three stages.

First, the position I have reached about the resurrection and incarnation of Jesus opens the door to reconsidering what we would otherwise probably dismiss. "Miracle," in the sense of divine intervention "from outside," is not in question.

What matters is the powerful, mysterious presence of the God of Israel, the creator God, bringing Israel's story to its climax by doing a new thing, bringing the story of creation to its height by a new creation from the womb of the old. Whether or not it happened, this is what it would mean if it did.

Second, there is no pre-Christian Jewish tradition suggesting that the messiah would be born of a virgin. No one used Isaiah 7:14 this way before Matthew did. Even assuming that Matthew or Luke regularly invented material to fit Jesus into earlier templates, why would they have invented something like this? The only conceivable parallels are pagan ones, and these fiercely Jewish stories have certainly not been modeled on them. Luke at least must have known that telling this story ran the risk of making Jesus out to be a pagan demigod. Why, for the sake of an exalted metaphor, would they take this risk-unless they at least believed the stories to he literally true?

Third, if the evangelists believed them to be true, when and by whom were they invented, if by the time of Matthew and Luke two such different, yet so compatible, stories were in circulation? Did whoever started this hare running mean it in a nonliteral sense, using virginal conception as a metaphor for something else? What was that "something else"? An embroidered border, presumably, around the belief that Jesus was divine. But that belief was a Jewish belief expressed in classic Jewish God-language; while the only models for virginal conception are the nakedly pagan stories of Alexander, Augustus and others. We would have to suppose that, within the first 50 years of Christianity a double move took place: from an early, very Jewish, high Christology, to a sudden paganization, and back to a very Jewish storytelling again.

The evangelists would then have thoroughly deconstructed their own deep intentions, suggesting that the climax of YHWH's purpose for Israel took place through a pagan-style miraculous birth.

To put it another way. What would have to have happened,

granted the skeptic's position, for the story to have taken the shape it did? To answer this, I must indulge in some speculative tradition-history. Bear with me in a little foolishness. Are they tradition critics? So am I. Are they scholars of ancient history? So am I. Are they reconstructors of early communities? So am I. Are they determined to think the argument through to the end? I speak as a fool-I am more so.

This is how it would look: Christians came to believe that Jesus was in some sense divine. Someone who shared this faith broke thoroughly with Jewish precedents and invented the story of a pagan-style virginal conception. Some Christians failed to realize that this was historicized metaphor, and retold it as though it were historical. Matthew and Luke, assuming historicity; drew independently upon this astonishing fabrication, set it (though in quite different ways) within a thoroughly Jewish context, and wove it in quite different ways into their respective narratives.

And all this happened within, more or less, 50 years. Possible? Yes, of course. Most things are possible in history. Likely? No. Smoke without fire does, of course, happen quite often in the real world. But this smoke, in that world, without fire? This theory asks us to believe in intellectual parthenogenesis: the birth of an idea without visible parentage. Difficult.

Unless, of course, you believe in miracles, which most people who disbelieve the virginal conception don't.

Maybe, after all, it is the theory of the contemporary skeptic that is metaphor historicized. The modernist belief that history is a closed continuum of cause and effect is projected onto the screen of the early church, producing a myth (specifically, a tradition-historical reconstruction which sustains and legitimates the original belief so strongly that its proponents come to believe it actually happened.

This foolishness is, of course, a way of saying that no "proof" is possible either way. No one can prove, historically, that Mary was a virgin when Jesus was conceived. No one can prove, historically, that she wasn't. Science studies the repeatable; history bumps its nose against the unrepeatable. If the first two chapters of Matthew and the first two of Luke had never existed, I do not suppose that my own Christian faith, or that of the church to which I belong, would have been very different. But since they do, and since for quite other reasons I have come to believe that the God of Israel, the world's creator, was personally and fully revealed in and as Jesus of Nazareth, I hold open my historical judgment and say: If that's what God deemed appropriate, who am I to object?

N. T. Wright, canon theologian at Westminster Abbey, was recently named bishop of Durham. This article appeared in The Christian Century, December 16, 1998, pp.

1215-17.

The Great Danger of Orthodoxy Don’t overlook this essential spiritual discipline for families James Emery White | Church Leaders

T

he Christian faith is known as an orthodox faith. It is appropriately concerned with orthodoxy, meaning “right thinking.” This is often juxtaposed against an emphasis on orthopraxy, meaning “right practice.”

And it is precisely these two dynamics—belief and practice—that most define a religious faith. For example, Christianity is a belief-oriented faith in the sense that we believe individuals are saved by faith, not by works. We are connected by creeds more than practices, confessions more than rituals. While this is truer of Protestants than Catholics, the Catholic Church would still rank what is (or is not) believed as more important than what is (or is not) practiced, at least in terms of what constitutes an “unbeliever.”

Not so in highly orthopraxic communities, where what you believe is secondary to how you live or what you do. In fact, in many settings, what you believe does not matter at all. It is something you live out rather than believe in.

Yet the Christian faith, at its best, must contain both. It values orthodoxy and orthopraxy, and does not see them at odds with each other. Orthodoxy should result in orthopraxy. In fact, orthodoxy without orthopraxy, as the New Testament book of James reminds us, is dead.

Why do I bring this up? Because there is an increasing tendency within many Christian circles to value orthodoxy alone, to the point of overlooking gross misconduct in terms of pride, arrogance, deceit and abuse among doctrinal peers.

Or, to put forward a Christian faith that is entirely cerebral without being personally spiritual.

That is not the Christian faith, much less the true dynamic of Christian orthodoxy.

I was invited to be a part of a theological task force during the Amsterdam 2000 gathering initiated by Billy Graham. The goal was to develop a fresh

lier such gathering at Lausanne in 1974 under the leadership of none other than the legendary British evangelical thinker, author, pastor and leader, John Stott. Stott, who wrote such classics as Basic Christianity, carried the tonguein-cheek title of “Pope for Evangelicals” around the world.

But now, it was on to the “Amsterdam Statement.” Led by J.I. Packer and Timothy George, the early formation involved small groups gathered around tables to capture key distinctives and smooth over various tensions.

I was asked to lead one of those table discussions. The discussion started robustly and soon hit a bit of a snag over an aspect related to worship.

Then, a latecomer arrived and took his seat at my table.

It was John Stott.

It was beyond comical to attempt to help “steer” the conversation in such a way that I might assist someone like Stott to gather his thoughts and contribute to the wider conversation. The only reasonable course of action was to defer to his presence, ask for his insights and then write down everything he said and submit it for publication.

He would have none of it.

He simply listened quietly for some time to the conversation on the nature of the church and its role in the world. Should we evangelize, or serve? Offer the gospel, or a cup of cold water? After much discussion, I asked him if he wouldn’t mind sharing his thoughts. He then offered, in a matter of a few sentences, the most brilliant distillation of the discourse with an added word or two that made any additional conversation unnecessary.

I recall his first words, “It would seem to be that we must embrace both orthodoxy and orthopraxy.”

Paul David Tripp | Church Leaders

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he past two weeks I’ve written to you about building a healthier family: First, by SURRENDERING your kingdom to God’s kingdom, and second, by living for a PURPOSE bigger than your own.

If you’re anything like me, those two things won’t come naturally; they’ll prove to be a significant heart struggle. So how do we get better? With DISCIPLINE. A disciplined person inserts good habits into their schedule, repeating them over and over again even when they don’t feel like it.

For the Christian, there are many spiritual disciplines: spending time in prayer, reading the Scriptures, attending church, participating in a small group, giving generously of your time and money, and more.

For Christian families, these same spiritual disciplines need to be prioritized: spending time in prayer (with your spouse) // reading the Scriptures (with your kids) // attending church (as a family) // participating in a small group (with your spouse) // giving generously

of your time and money (in a way that involves your children).

But I’m concerned that there’s an essential spiritual discipline—with specific ramifications for families—that often gets neglected: It’s the spiritual discipline of saying no.

Before I continue, read Galatians 5:1315: “You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other” (NIV, emphasis added).

To indulge means to allow oneself to enjoy the pleasure of. The Apostle Paul is warning us: “Don’t allow yourself to enjoy the pleasures of sin.” But take another look at those verses. There are specific relational consequences when we indulge the flesh. We are never just sinning in isolation—our spouse, our children, our siblings and our parents will be impacted by our sins.

Let me phrase what I’m trying to communicate in a different way: A family becomes a healthy family when members of that family say no. When husbands and fathers say no to indulging the flesh, the home becomes a safer place. When wives and mothers say no to the pleasures of sin, the family becomes a healthier unit. When brothers and sisters and children say no to themselves, they won’t bite and devour each other—both literally and spiritually!

Disciplining yourself to say no to sin will be hard, just as surrendering to God’s kingdom and living for his purpose is hard.

Indulging the flesh is natural for us all, but Jesus understands our inability. Not only does he forgive us when we stumble, he now lives within us and helps us say no to sin and choose instead to serve our family in humble love.

A family becomes a healthy family when members of that family commit to the discipline of saying no to themselves and refuse to indulge the sinful nature. When you live in the power of the Holy Spirit, a beautiful and wonderful home becomes possible!

Exuding gratitude when life gives you a flat tire Christy Fitzwater | Charisma Magazine

H

e called on his way home from fishing, but I could tell there was something wrong.

"Well, I've got a flat tire," he said.

"Oh no. Where are you?" I asked.

"Would you believe I'm just a few blocks away from our tire store? Why couldn't the tire have blown just two minutes later? I've got a problem. When we bought the new rims this year, I didn't realize my tire iron wouldn't fit anymore."

Then we played that fun marriage game He was right. where the guy tries to describe to the girl what He’s still right.

So what is the great danger of ortho- tool he needs from the garage.

After figuring out what he wanted, I doxy?

frustrated. Lord, really? Why couldn't you have gotten Matt a few more blocks down the road?

So I drove to Les Schwab and played another game of "try to explain what you need to the car guy behind the counter." That resulted in me calling Matt and handing the phone to the guy.

I am such a girl.

Would you believe the man loaned me the tool we needed? "How soon can you get this back to me?" he said. I told him five minutes. By then it was 5:40 and close to closing time. I lied—it was 5:50 when I returned it. I told the Les Schwab man he was my hero.

At home that evening, Matt looked at me

out fishing? An hour away from home, in the boonies, with no cell service and no fitting tire iron? How good was it of God to have me lose the tire just a few blocks away from the tire store."

Well, yes. How good it was. I voiced my agreement.

And how nice of that guy to let me walk out of his store with the tool I needed. He took a risk that I was telling the truth and would return it.

Paul says: "In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you" (1 Thess. 5:18).

Once again, I have been schooled to hunt for the good in every circumstance, instead of defaulting to griping.

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SunDAY 09•07•2017

INDIA

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

India-US relations will depend on Trump's Modi meets May - seeks UK’s help position on Pakistan: Indian diplomat in return of economic offenders

New DelHI, July 8 (IaNS): India's relations with the US will depend on the latter's position on Pakistan, about which New Delhi is still in the dark, said a former Indian diplomat in his assessment of the situation after the meeting late last month between the two countries' top leadership.

"After coming to power Trump (US President Donald Trump) has not said anything on Pakistan. In his address to the joint session of Congress in February this year, he said nothing on Pakistan. He did not say anything on it during his campaign either," Arun K. Singh, India's Ambassador to the US in 2015-16,

said here on Friday evening during a panel discussion.

During the talk held under the rubric of 'India-US Relation after Modi-Trump Summit', the former ambassador said the US policy on Afghanistan will also be a factor in its position towards Pakistan, and in turn towards India.

"Its policy towards Afghanistan will also determine its stance towards Pakistan. This will have an impact on us. And so far the situation remains," Singh said at the talk organised by the Indo-American Friendship Association.

He, however, stressed that India cannot do without the US since, "despite

Jaitley launches app to help users verify GST rates New DelHI, July 8 (IaNS): Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has launched a mobile app 'GST Rates Finder' to help any person who has purchased a footwear or has been billed by a hotel to cross verify the correctness of the rate of GST charged. "This mobile app helps users to find rates of GST for various goods and services. It can be downloaded on any smart phone and can work in offline mode, once downloaded. The user can determine the GST rate for a good or a service by entering the name or chapter heading of the commodity or service," the Finance Ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

The app, which is now available on android platform, will soon be available on iOS platform too.

The search result will list all the goods and services containing the name which was typed in the search box. The user can scroll down the list of description and when any specific item on the list is clicked, the display window will pop-up, containing details such as GST rate, description of goods or services and the chapter heading of the Harmonised System of Nomenclature (HSN). The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) has also provided a GST rate finder on its portal cbec-gst.gov.in to help the taxpayers know the applicable GST rate on their supplies of goods and services. A taxpayer can search for applicable Central GST, State GST, Union Territory GST rate and Compensation Cess on a supply. The search can be made based on description of goods or services or HSN chapter or section or heading number.

"These are aimed to serve as a ready reckoner on GST rates. This will empower not only the taxpayers, but every citizen of the nation, to ascertain the correct GST rate on goods and services," it said.

My fight is for ideology: Meira PaTNa, July 8 (IaNS): Congress-led opposition Presidential nominee Meira Kumar on Saturday said her fight is for ideology and she strongly believes in the age-old Indian tradition of respecting one's own religion and other religions with the same zeal. "Yeh vichardhara ki ladai hai, mere liye yehi hai," Meira Kumar told media at Sadaqat Ashram, the Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee headquarters in Patna on the final day of her three-days visit to Bihar to seek support for her candidature. Before leaving for Ranchi to campaign, she said that in India since ancient times people used to respect their own religion and at the same time respect other religions. "It is an age-old tradition of our country." She said that Bihar is her birthplace.

"Yehi meri janambhumi hai, I am proud of it." In reply to a question, Meira said opposition unity is based on ideology and ideas. She reiterated that the Presidential vote should be decided on the basis of inner voice.

"I have appealed to all to vote as per their inner voice," Kumar said while downplaying Bihar Chief Minister and JD-U President Nitish Kumar's decision to support NDA's Presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind.

Earlier, she visited her native village Chandwa in Bhojpur district on Friday where she garlanded the statue of her father Babu Jagjivan Ram, an iconic Dalit leader.

Free surgery in private hospitals if waiting list long: Kejriwal New DelHI, July 8 (IaNS): Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced on Saturday that Delhi residents won't have to wait much for life-saving surgeries in government hospitals as they can get them done for free in private ones. Kejriwal said if any patient doesn't get a date for surgery at a government hospital within one month, the hospital would refer them to private hospitals and the government would pay all the expenses. "We want to ensure that people, irrespective of their economic status, get best health and education facilities and this is a step in that direction," the Aam Aadmi Party leader said. He added that this was third in a series of initiatives taken by the Delhi government, after ensuring free medicines in all government hospitals and allowing free medical tests at private diagnostic centres. "Health services are so expensive today that if anyone suffers from a serious ailment, the biggest worry for the family is not the health of the patient, but where would the money come from," Kejriwal said while announcing the scheme. "But now there is no need to worry as the Delhi government would ensure that the patient gets best treatment free of cost," he said. To criticism that the money paid to private hospitals for treatment could be used to augment government ones, Kejriwal said the government hospitals would receive as much money as needed to boost their infrastructure. "But it would take years to create that infrastructure while patients need immediate attention. So this step is aimed to provide immediate relief on a temporary basis," he said. "We want to create such healthcare system that all patients get all medical tests within the hospitals and get dates for surgeries within a month. But till that time, such steps are necessary."

the changes, it still remains a dominant power".

Not just in "defence supplies, but in economy, politics, middle class aspirations, education opportunities, no other country in the world can provide us the space that the US can, not Europe, or Russia, or Japan", he said.

An alignment with the foreign policy of the US will be key to India's interest, cautioned the former envoy, since the free-market giant definitely will not craft its policies around India's interests.

"We have to keep in mind that the US will not make its foreign policy to meet India's interests... We

need to see where is the convergence (between India's and US' policies) and nimbly adjust and play with that convergence to maximise our interests," he advised. "We have no choice but to engage with the US," he asserted.

US foreign policy expert and Jawaharlal Nehru University Rector, Chintamani Mahapatra, said that India and the US are fighting "an invisible enemy" in terrorism, and although not entirely overt, there is a deep cooperation between the two countries on this issue.

"It is a secretive war, but I strongly feel that both the countries are deeply cooperative with each other (in

fighting terror)," Mahapatra said.

He also remarked that India has a lot of expectations from the US on the terror front and that the support in this regard can at best be reciprocative.

"India expects a lot from the US. But can India help the US in fighting Hamas or IS ?... It has been our long time desire that the US declare Pakistan a terror state, but did we ourselves do so? " he said.

Other panellists included Suhasini Haider, Diplomatic Editor of The Hindu newspaper, and Jeffrey R. Sexton, the Minister Counsellor for Public Affairs at US Embassy in India.

Not denied visa to India Foundation researchers: Chinese Embassy

New DelHI, July 8 (IaNS): The Chinese Embassy on Saturday said that it has not denied visa to two researchers of a seven-member India Foundation delegation for visiting the Fudan University in Shanghai. Spokesperson of Chinese Embassy in India Counsellor Xie Liyan denied the report and said that all seven members of India Foundation delegation to visit China got their visas in time.

There were reports that China has also put the visa of India Foundation Director Alok Bansal on hold and denied visa to two researchers, following the developments the foundation on Friday called off the visit. "As far as I know, all seven members of India Foundation delegation to visit China got their visas in time. None of the visa application was denied. The delegation will visit China as scheduled," the embassy said in a statement.

It added: "The Chinese side always welcomes and supports the exchanges of think tanks between China and India. It is not true that the source of India Foundation claims that two of its junior research members were denied visas and the visit

to China of the delegation has been canceled." On Friday, BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav, who is on the Board of Directors of India Foundation, had denied media reports that he was denied visa by China but confirmed that visas of two of their researchers were rejected.

India Foundation and Fudan University held the third edition of their bilateral interaction in Delhi on December 4 to 5 last year. In continuation of this bilateral interaction agreement, a seven-member delegation of the Foundation was to visit Shanghai.

Bansal on Friday said that his visa was put on hold, and told the media: "No idea why the visa was denied. It's the discretion of the Chinese government to give visa. It's a shock because we didn't think that visa would be a problem."

The report of denial of visa to Indians comes amid rising tensions between the two countries due to a border stand-off.

Union Ministers Suresh Prabhu, Nirmala Sitharaman, Jayant Sinha and M.J. Akbar are among the Board of Directors of India Foundation.

The Prime Minister, Narendra Modi meeting the Prime Minister of United Kingdom, Mr. Theresa May, on the sidelines of the 12th G-20 Summit, in Hamburg, Germany on July 08. (PIB Photo)

Hamburg, July 8 (PTI): Indian PM met Ms. May during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the G20 Summit and sought UK’s help in extradition of Vijay Mallya and other economic offenders.

As India works to seek return of fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday pressed upon his British counterpart Theresa May to request UK’s cooperation in bringing back economic offenders.

Mr. Mallya has been in the UK for months, escaping arrest warrants, while a court in London is hearing a case regarding his return to India. Mr. Modi met

Ms. May during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the G20 Summit and sought UK’s help in this regard.

Both leaders also talked about the complete range of India-UK ties.

In a tweet after the meeting, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Gopal Baglay said the Prime Minister asked for UK’s “cooperation for return of escaped Indian economic offenders“.

Mr. Mallya, who is wanted in India for Kingfisher Airlines’ default on loans worth nearly Rs. 9,000 crore, has been in the UK since March 2016.

In April, he had was arrested at a central London

police station and was released on conditional bail a few hours later after providing bond worth 650,000 pounds and assuring the court of abiding by all conditions associated with extradition proceedings, such as the surrender of his passport and a ban on him possessing any travel documents.

India and the UK have an Extradition Treaty, signed in 1992, but so far only one extradition has taken place under the arrangement — Samirbhai Vinubhai Patel, who was sent back to India last October to face trial in connection with his involvement in the post-Godhra riots of 2002.

India well prepared to meet any threat: Army chief

New DelHI, July 8 (ageNcIeS): Chief of Army Staff General Bipin Rawat said India was well prepared to meet any external or internal security threat.

“Nobody should have doubts on India’s military capabilities,” Gen Rawat told reporters during a brief interaction after visiting the Mahabodhi Mahavihara, a Unesco world heritage site, at Bodh Gaya, 110 km south of Patna, on Friday.

He, however, refused to comment on the faceoff between Indian troops and Chinese military over a disputed area at the Sikkim tri-junction. “This is not the right place or occasion to speak on the matter,” he said. “I have come to the Mahabodhi temple to pray for world peace,” he said after performing rituals under the Mahabodhi Tree in the presence of chief priest Bhante Chalinda.

Accompanied by his wife, Gen Rawat drove to Bodh Gaya soon after his arrival at Gaya airport on Friday afternoon. After offering prayers at the Mahabodhi temple, he left for the Officers’ Training Academy (OTA), Gaya.

At the OTA, he reviewed the administrative and training facilities of gentleman cadets and discussed its future plans with Lt Gen DR Soni, GOC-

in chief, Training Command, Shimla, and Lt Gen RK Jagga, commandant of OTA, Gaya. He lauded the arrangements and infrastructure upgradation at the academy which was set up in 2011.

Later, Gen Rawat and members of a Myanmar delegation of military officers and senior diplomats enjoyed a cultural programme and attended an official banquet at the OTA

officers’ mess.

The Myanmar delegation, comprising commander-in-chief, defence services, Myanmar, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, is on a three-day tour of Gaya. During their stay in Gaya, the delegation members offered prayers at Myanmar monastery and Mahabodhi temple at Bodh Gaya and also visited Rajgir and Nalanda.

The Myanmar delega-

India emerging as front-runner in fight against climate change: World Bank

waSHINgToN, July 8 (PTI): India is emerging as a front runner in the global fight against climate change, the World Bank has said, noting that the solar power is gradually displacing coal as an energy source in the Asian country.

“With a sweeping commitment to solar power, innovative solutions and energy efficiency initiatives to supply its people with 24x7 electricity by 2030, India is emerging as a front runner in the global fight against climate change,” the World Bank said in a news report published on July

7, 2017. According to the World Bank, with its conscious choice to use significantly more clean energy to fuel its growth, India is contributing to global efforts to save the planet from the effects of climate change.

Just a few weeks ago, the country also walked away from plans to install nearly 14 GW of coal-fired power plants, largely because it is as affordable now to generate electricity with solar power as it is to use fossil fuels, the report said, praising the Indian move in this regard.

“In India and beyond, solar

power is starting to displace coal as an energy source,” the World Bank said, adding that the cost of electricity from solar photovoltaic (PV) is currently a quarter of what it was in 2009 and is set to fall another 66% by 2040.

With nearly 300 days of sunshine every year, India has among the best conditions in the world to capture and use solar energy, it noted. “Clearly, the market agrees, as is evident from the significant drop in the cost of solar power. In its latest solar auction, the country achieved a record low tariff of INR 2.44/unit

(4 cents/unit) for a project in the desert State of Rajasthan,” the report said. Noting that the Indian government is setting ambitious targets that include 160 gigawatts (GW) of wind and solar by 2022, the World Bank said that not only will this help hundreds of million people light their homes it will also enable children to study at night, provide families with refrigerators to preserve their food or TVs to entertain themselves.

“It is also an incentive for international firms to invest in India’s solar market,” the World Bank added.

Couple killed, three daughters injured in Pakistan shelling along LoC

Jammu, July 8 (PTI): An Army jawan and his wife were killed and their three daughters injured when the Pakistani Army targeted forward posts and hamlets along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district, police said on July 8, 2017.

The Pakistan Army violated the ceasefire and initiated indiscriminate firing from small arms, automatic weapons and mortars from 6.30 a.m. on July 8, 2017 on Indian Army posts along the LoC, a defence spokesperson added.

Indian troops returned the fire strongly and effectively, he said.

Sepoy Mohmmad Shaukat of the Territorial Army, who was on leave, and his wife Safia Bi were killed when a mortar shell fired by the Pakistan Army exploded near their home in Karmara, a police officer said.

The couple’s three daughters, Zaida Kouser (6), Robina Kouser (12) and Nazia Bi, and another person were injured. Pakistani troops rained mortar bomb shells

shelled mortars along the LoC in the Bhimbher Gali sector of Rajouri. On June 22, a Pakistani special forces team sneaked across the LoC into Poonch under cover of heavy fire and killed two jawans — 34-year-old Naik Jadhav Sandip of Aurangabad and 24-year-old Sepoy Mane Savan Balku of Kolhapur. One Pakistani soldier was also killed. Pakistan’s Border Action Team comprises its army’s special forces personnel and terrorists.

and resorted to heavy firing, targeting civilian villages. “Very heavy shelling is going on in areas like Khadi, Karmara and Guplur,” he said. The Pakistan Army is firing and shelling heavily from eight different posts on villages and forward posts along the LoC. They have fired at five to six hamlets, the officer said.

There have been 23 incidents of ceasefire violation, an attack by Pakistan special forces team and

two infiltration bids in June 2017, in which four people including three jawans were killed and 12 were injured.

On June 29, two Indian Army jawans were injured when the Pakistani troops fired from small arms and shelled mortars on forward posts and civilian areas along the LoC in Poonch district.

Even on Eid-ul Fitr on June 26, the Pakistani Army fired small arms and automatic weapons and

3 Army personnel injured in militant attack Meanwhile, three Army personnel, including a Captain, were injured when militants fired at a patrol team in Bandipora district, police said on Saturday. The militants opened indiscriminate fire on the Army patrol at Hajin in Bandipora late last night, a police official said.The militants managed to escape under the cover of darkness, he added. The injured were admitted to the 92 Base Hospital in Srinagar.

tion will leave on July 10, OTA sources said.

India shares 1,643-km porous land border with Myanmar and has been stepping up defence cooperation, ranging from expansion in military visits and exercises to training and technology-sharing with it to turn the heat on Indian insurgent groups operating in the region. Myanmar is also wary of the Chinese influence in the area.

IndiGo bus's window shatters due to jet blast, five passengers injured

New DelHI, July 8 (IaNS): Budget passenger carrier IndiGo on Saturday said that five passengers were injured when the window of a bus ferrying them to their aircraft shattered due to a "jet blast" from a nearby plane.

In aviation parlance a "jet blast" is a high speed gush of air that is exhausted out of the aircraft's engine at the time of either take-off or taxiing.

According to the airline, civil aviation regulator DGCA has initiated an inquiry in to the incident which took place on Friday evening at the IGI Airport here.

"An arriving aircraft of Spicejet SG-253 took a turn to park at the allocated bay during which the jet blast from the aircraft broke the right front window glass of IndiGo coach," the budget passenger carrier said in a statement. "Five passengers seated in the coach received minor injuries... We have voluntarily informed the authorities. This matter is being investigated by IndiGo safety department and the regulator." On its part, SpiceJet said that its Chandigarh-Delhi flight SG-253 was following ATC instructions and was taxiing at the time of the incident.

"It is too early to say if the incident was caused by an outside object or jet blast of SpiceJet aircraft or the bus violated the vehicular movement lane or any other reason," SpiceJet said in a statement. "It is also too early to apportion responsibility as the pilots were following normal procedures as is done world wide. In any case we have informed the regulator and the airline is closely cooperating with all assistance."

sundaY 09 •07•2017

WORLD

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

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Russia didn’t meddle in US election, Putin tells Trump

Hamburg, July 8 (IaNS): Russian President Vladimir Putin told his US counterpart Donald Trump that Moscow did not meddle in the US presidential election and Trump accepted it, claimed Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

After the two leaders emerged from a meeting in Hamburg on Friday, on the sidelines of G20 summit, that lasted over two hours -- at one point, First Lady Melania Trump entered the room to hurry them along -- US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Trump had raised the issue of Moscow’s alleged cyber-meddling in the election at the start of their conversation, the Independent reported.

He said the US had talked about such attacks represented a “threat to the democratic process”. An official from the White House, however, later indicated that the President (Trump) had not in fact accepted assurances from Putin that Russia did not meddle in the 2016 election.

“The President opened the meeting raising the concerns of the American people about Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election,” said Tillerson. “They had a very lengthy and robust conversation on this.”

He said Trump pushed him on the issue and Putin stood firm in his denial.

“I think the President is rightly focused on how do we move forward from something that may be an intractable disagreement at this point,” Tillerson said. In his own briefing to reporters, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Trump accepted Putin’s assurances that Russia did not meddle in the election.

“The (issue of cybersecurity) got a lot of attention, which is understandable,” Lavrov said. “President Trump mentioned that in the US, some circles are fuelling -- even though they cannot prove (anything -- the allegations of Russian meddling in the US elections).”

When pressed, Lavrov said that Trump or Tillerson would likely provide further information to the press.

“In the course of the months that

For Trump and Putin, a warm handshake and a long meeting

President Donald Trump meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 Summit, on July 7, in Hamburg. (AP Photo)

these allegations have been around, not a single fact has been presented, which is admitted by those in the (US) Congress who have led this movement at some point,” Lavrov said. “And President Trump said that he heard President Putin stating clearly that it is not true, that the Russian government did not meddle” in the elections.”

Trump left the scene of his conversation with Putin, to head to Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, a concert that is the venue for a formal G20 dinner.

He was accompanied by the First Lady Melania Trump.

Earlier, the US President had spoken to reporters as he and Putin posed for photographs before their discussions, accompanied only by their translators, Tillerson and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

“President Putin and I have been discussing various things, and I think it’s going very well,” said Mr Trump.

“We look forward to a lot of very positive happenings for Russia and for the United States, and for everyone concerned.”

For his part, Putin said he was happy to be able to meet Trump in person.

“We spoke over the phone but phone conversations are never enough, definitely,” he said. “I hope that, as you have said, our meetings will yield positive results.”

The two leaders discussed a range of issues, including Russia’s annexation of Crimea, a reported agreement for a cease fire in Syria, and ways to cooperate in the fight against terrorism in the world “This is our first indication of the US and Russia being able to work together in Syria,” Tillerson said of the ceasefire in Syria, which was described as a potential building block to further cooperation in the war-torn country. Trump and Putin had a “lengthy discussion of other areas

in Syria where we can work together”.Before the meeting between the two presidents, observers were keen to see how they would interact in person.

The two countries haven’t had the greatest relationship so far in Trump’s nascent presidency, and the White House has at times described the relationship with the Kremlin as at all-time lows. The relationship became exacerbated in April when Trump ordered a missile strike on a Syrian government airbase in April to the chagrin of the Russian military.

The Russian government officially supports the embattled Syrian regime headed by Bashar al-Assad, while the US government has called for that president’s ouster.

The 2017 G20 summit is the 12 meeting of the Group of Twenty, which is an assembly of some of the most powerful countries, as well as the European Union.

Hamburg, 8 (aP): It began with one of the most closely watched diplomatic handshakes in decades and ended way later than expected.

What transpired between President Donald Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin during the two hours and 16 minutes in between will be dissected for days.

The public got only a quick glimpse of the two men toward the top of Friday’s much-anticipated meeting, leaving the opening handshake ripe for analysis.

It was friendly and simple — no undue handshake drama.

That’s not always a given with Trump. He had raised eyebrows when he didn’t shake hands with German Chancellor Angela Merkel during an Oval Office photo opportunity earlier this year.

And his clenched, jaw-straining clasp with French President Emmanuel Macron was seen as a test of masculinity and presidential power. Putin and Trump were seated before the cameras were invited in on Friday.

The Russian leader sat back in his chair, a look of steely resolve on his face. Trump seemed relaxed, his hands in a triangle below his knees, his mouth offering a hint of a smile.

As the clicking of photographers’ shutters filled the room, the two men leaned in, shared a small laugh and eyed the press, whom both have at times deemed their enemy. The tableau in the Hamburg meeting room: Trump, Putin, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and a pair of translators. Trump spoke first, saying that he and Putin were having

“very good talks.”

“We look forward to a lot of very positive things happening for Russia, for the United States and for everybody concerned,” Trump said, turning toward Putin. “And it’s an honor to be with you.”

Putin, using a translator, agreed, saying that “a phone conversation is never enough.”

“I am delighted to be able to meet you personally, Mr. President,” Putin said.

With that, the press was soon ushered out — shouted questions about Russian interference in last year’s election unanswered.

Tillerson said Trump went straight to the matter of Russian interference in the election; Putin, in turn, denied involvement.

According to Lavrov, Trump accepted that denial. But U.S. officials differed with that account.

The two men “had a very robust and lengthy exchange on the subject,” Tillerson said. “The president pressed President Putin on more than one occasion regarding Russian involvement.”

Tillerson also said there was a difference of opinion over tactics to be used to halt the threat posed

by North Korea.

But largely, according to the secretary of state, the men “connected quickly.” “Just about everything got touched on to one degree or another,” Tillerson said, adding that, “Neither one of them wanted to stop.” As time dragged on, officials at one point dispatched first lady Melania Trump to enter the room and try to help wrap things up. “We went another hour after she came to see us. So clearly she failed,” Tillerson joked at later briefing.

Japan hit by freak weather 122 countries adopt first-ever

A local resident uses a mobile phone to take a photo of a destroyed bridge which was swept away by heavy rain in Hita, Oita Prefecture, Japan July 7. (REUTERS)

aSaKura, July 8 (rEuTErS): Jap- landslides, as the death toll from several anese rescue crews took advantage of a days of freak weather rose to 16, the NHK break in the weather on Saturday to search state broadcaster reported.

Authorities warned of more downpours for survivors of torrential rain, floods and

over the weekend, compounding the misery that the summer storms have brought to southwest Japan since Wednesday.

Some neighbourhoods have been devastated by flooding and landslides, and rescue workers and residents have been picking their way through expanses of broken, water-logged trees, branches and mud.

“All the mud and debris is making the clean-up effort difficult,” said Susumu Higuchi, a resident of Asakura.

The city was pounded by more than 600 mm (24 inches) of rain in the 24 hours to 5 a.m. (2000 GMT) on Saturday, according to Japan’s weather agency.

Heavy machinery was working to clear almost knee-deep mud from streets while nearby, an uprooted tree was tangled in cables from an electricity power pole.

A police dog was hunting for victims in flooded homes, many now clogged with debris. The weather agency said 150 mm of rain was forecast to fall in industrialised Northern Kyushu in the 24 hours to 6 a.m. on Sunday. Some places have seen more rain in a matter of hours than they usually get in the whole month of July. The rain has been caused by a low pressure over the Pacific that has been feeding into moist air into Japan’s seasonal rainy front.

Former martial arts star Battulga wins Mongolian presidential poll

ulaaNbaaTar, July 8 (rEuTErS): Populist former martial arts star and businessman Khaltmaa Battulga has won Mongolia’s presidential run-off election, according to voter data from the General Election Commission released on Saturday.

The poll was seen as a referendum on the government’s economic recovery plans and the role of southern neighbour China in the landlocked but resource-rich country known as the birthplace of Mongol emperor Genghis Khan.

Battulga, of the opposition Democratic Party, won with 50.6 percent of the vote on a 60.9 percent turnout, giving him the majority needed to overcome his opponent, parliament speaker Miyeegombo Enkhbold of the ruling Mongolian People’s Party.

Election officials are still, however, waiting on a final count of votes from abroad.

The election campaign was marred by political mudslinging from all sides and the public perception that none of the candidates were fit for the job, according to Luvsanvandan Sumati, the head of polling group the Sant Maral Foundation.

“The worst election in Mon-

golian history,” said Sumati.

Enkhbold’s loss was definitive. He trailed far behind Battulga with 41.2 percent of the vote due to the nearly 100,000 blank votes submitted in protest at the choice of candidates.

Friday’s run-off was scheduled after the June 26 vote failed to result in a outright winner.

Some investors have been wary of a Battulga presidency because of his calls for more state control of some mines and his suspicions of China, Mongolia’s biggest trade partner.

Despite past protests, he has said he will stand behind plans to build a key railway to China from the enormous Tavan Tolgoi coal mine and has praised China’s Belt and Road panAsian infrastructure initiative.

“He may push projects that are politically motivated but not economically justified,” said a Mongolia-focused institutional investor who asked not to be named.

Battulga rose to fame as a Mongolian wrestler. His businesses include a hotel, a Genghis Khan-themed amusement park, and food companies for baked goods and meats.

Tsakhia Elbegdorj will step down as president after finishing his second and final term.

Khaltmaa Battulga waves to reporters after addressing them in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, early July 8. (REUTERS)

Battulga’s opponent Enkhbold has stood behind the current government and prime minister, pledging to stay the course for economic recovery following a $5.5 billion rescue package from the International Monetary Fund and partners in May. Battulga captured the attention of voters who feel Mongo-

lia received a bad deal on investments, promising greater government control of strategic mines, such as Rio Tinto’s Oyu Tolgoi copper mine.

Mongolia is a parliamentary democracy. The government is run by a prime minister, but the president has powers to veto legislation and make judicial appointments.

treaty banning nuke weapons

Delegates give a standing ovation after a vote by the conference to adopt a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination on July 7 at United Nations headquarters. (AP Photo)

uNITED NaTIONS, July 8 (aP): More than 120 countries approved the first-ever treaty to ban nuclear weapons Friday at a U.N. meeting boycotted by all nuclear-armed nations.

To loud applause, Elayne Whyte Gomez, president of the U.N. conference that has been negotiating the legally binding treaty, announced the results of the “historic” vote — 122 nations in favor, the Netherlands opposed, and Singapore abstaining. “We have managed to sow the first seeds of a world free of nuclear weapons,” Whyte Gomez said. “We (are) ... saying to our children that, yes, it is possible to inherit a world free from nuclear weapons.”

“The world has been waiting for this legal norm for 70 years,” since atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 at the end of World War II, she said.

Setsuko Thurlow, who was a 13-year-old student in Hiroshima when a U.S. nuclear bomb destroyed the city, said survivors “have worked all our lives to make sure that no other human beings should ever again be subjected to such an atrocity.” None of the nine countries known or believed to possess nuclear weapons — the United States, Russia, Britain, China, France, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel — is supporting the treaty. Many of their allies also did not attend the meeting.

In a joint statement, the U.N. ambassadors from the United States, Britain and France said their countries don’t intend to ever become party to the treaty.

They said it “clearly disregards the realities of the international security environment” and “is incompatible with the policy of nuclear deterrence, which has been essential to keeping the peace in Europe and North Asia for over 70 years.”

The treaty offers no solution to “the grave threat posed by North Korea’s nuclear program, nor does it address other security challenges that make nuclear deterrence necessary,” the three ambassadors said.

A ban that doesn’t address these concerns “cannot result in the elimination of a single nuclear weapon and will not enhance any country’s security,” they said. “It will do the exact opposite by creating even more divisions at a time when the world needs to remain united in the face of growing threats.” The U.S., Britain and France along with other nuclear powers instead want to

strengthen the nearly half-century-old Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, considered the cornerstone of global nonproliferation efforts.

That pact sought to prevent the spread of atomic arms beyond the five original weapons powers — the U.S., Russia, Britain, France and China. It requires non-nuclear signatory nations to not pursue atomic weapons in exchange for a commitment by the five powers to move toward nuclear disarmament and to guarantee non-nuclear states’ access to peaceful nuclear technology for producing energy.

All NATO members boycotted the treaty negotiations except for the Netherlands, which has U.S. nuclear weapons on its territory and was urged by its parliament to send a delegation The Netherlands deputy U.N. ambassador Lise Gregoire-Van-Haaren told delegates her country couldn’t vote for a treaty that went against its NATO obligations, had inadequate verification provisions or that undermined the NPT — and “this draft does not meet our criteria.”

Whyte Gomez, Costa Rica’s U.N. ambassador in Geneva, said 129 nations signed up to help draft the treaty, which represents two-thirds of the 193 member states. The treaty will be opened for signatures in September and come into force when 50 countries have ratified it, she said, and its language leaves the door open for nuclear weapon states to become parties to the agreement.

The treaty requires of all ratifying countries “never under any circumstances to develop, test, produce, manufacture, otherwise acquire, possess or stockpile nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices.” It also bans any transfer or use of nuclear weapons or nuclear explosive devices — and the threat to use such weapons.

Iran, which signed an agreement with six major powers in 2015 to rein in its nuclear program, was among the countries that voted for the treaty.

Other countries that voted in favor include Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, Brazil, South Africa, Egypt, Iraq, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Rebecca Johnson of the London-based Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy who spent the past decade helping to develop strategy for a treaty, called the vote “the first step to prevent a handful of militaries holding the world hostage with their nuclear arsenals.” “We will use (the ban) to stop further nukes being made, used or deployed,” she said.

10

SunDAY 09•07•2017

sports

Kohli may open as India start favourites despite Gayle factor

(AP File Photo)

KiNGStON (JAmAicA), JuL 8 (Pti): Skipper Virat Kohli might open the innings when India take on the West Indies in a one- off Twenty20, aiming to finish their Caribbean sojourn on a high despite the threat posed by Chris Gayle's return to the home team.

After winning the fivematch ODI series 3-1, India will certainly have an upperhand despite the presence of Gayle, who can single-handedly swing fortunes especially in the shortest format.

However, Gayle will be donning the Caribbean maroons after a gap 15 months during which he has battled injuries as well as poor form during the IPL, which was his last competitive tournament before this particular game.

West Indies are reigning world champions with the likes of Gayle, Marlon Samuels, Sunil Narine and Samuel Badree still a part of the current squad led by their World T20 hero Carlos Brathwaite.

Also there's Evin Lewis, who had scored a 49-ball-100 in West Indies' one-run win over India in a T20 game in Florida, last year.

But T20 is one format where the home team starts on even keel against an Indian team which had its foot firmly on the pedal save an occasional blip in Jamaica.

The change in format may bring about some strategic shift in the playing XI with Kohli expected to open the innings.

Kohli has opened a lot for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL and also occasionally for India when Rohit Sharma has not been around.

While Ajinkya Rahane has had a fantastic ODI series with close to 350 runs including a century and three half-tons,

Kohli opening the innings with Shikhar Dhawan looks more imminent considering the change in format.

The young Rishabh Pant could finally get his chance on the tour. Pant was a part of the playing XI that last played a T20 match against England in Bengaluru, earlier this year.

The Indian team management is aiming to groom Pant as the future limited-overs glovesman and that's the reason he may get his chance.

Kuldeep Yadav, who has been a successful T20 bowler for Kolkata Knight Riders, may also make his T20 International debut after an impressive series in which he picked up eight wickets.

Since there has been a pattern in the first XI selection of the Indian team, the last T20 International saw leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal pick up six England wickets.

With Chahal not being a part of this squad, the management may go for a wrist spinner in Kuldeep, who has the ability trouble the batsmen with his wrong 'uns.

IPL's highest wicket-taker, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, after some well-earned rest, will be leading the pace attack alongside Umesh Yadav.

For West Indies, the onus will be on their spin twins Narine and Badree, who can trouble the Indian batsmen with their variations. Narine may also open the innings, something which he successfully did for KKR in the IPL. SquAd India: Virat Kohli (captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), Yuvraj Singh, Kedar Jadhav, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Dinesh Karthik, Mohammed Shami.

West Indies: Carlos Brathwaite (capt), Samuel Badree, Ronsford Beaton, Chris Gayle, Evin Lewis, Jason Mohammed, Sunil Narine, Kieron Pollard, Rovman Powell, Marlon Samuels, Jerome Taylor, Chadwick Walton (wk), Kesrick Williams.

Match Starts: IST 9 pm.

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

Venus wins the generation game against exciting Osaka

LONdON, JuLy 8 (REutERS): Naomi Osaka wasn't even born when Venus Williams made her debut at the All England Club, but it was the 37-year-old who triumphed on Friday to book her place in the last 16 at Wimbledon.

It was by no means easy though for five-times Wimbledon winner Williams to turn that 20 years of experience on the grass at SW19 into a win against the 59th ranked 19-yearold.

The 7-6(3) 6-4 result does not truly reflect the powerful attacking and spectacular winners from Osaka, who did enough in this encounter to suggest that longer runs at Wimbledon could be in her future.

Indeed, despite her tender age, Osaka, whose

mother is Japanese and father Haitian, has reached the third round in each of the Grand Slams.

The 19-year-old, who moved to the United States as a young child, has made no secret of being a fan of the Williams sisters, but she was far from overawed by the occasion or her opponent.

"I think I started tennis because of them ... (but) going into the match, I tried not to think of her that much of how I normally do. I tried to think of her as a normal opponent so that I didn't hold her on that high of a pedestal, that would make me too nervous, I think, to play her," she said.

After fighting back from 4-1 down in the opening set, Osaka could easily have won it - she was 3-0 up in the tie-break

Venus celebrates winning the third round match against Naomi Osaka. (Reuters Photo)

before Venus, showing her characteristic grit and calm, took the next seven points.

It was tight in the sec-

ond until Venus took advantage of some wayward shots from Osaka to grab a break in the seventh and she held firm to secure

a place against Croatian Ana Konjuh in the fourth round.

"She played an amazing match today," said Wil-

liams, "She really played a match that was worth - she deserved to win. But these sort of matches are always so close.

"The first set I had a break. She played some great tennis. She had some luck and some great tennis. Also the second was just about trying to get a break or two, if possible.

I wasn't successful in the two, but one thankfully was enough," she added.

Osaka reacted like a teenage fan when told of Williams' praise, smiling without restraint, but she showed enough maturity to know where she had fallen short.

"Game-wise I feel like I'm, like, as good as anyone else. But I just feel like maybe mentality-wise there's certain things to do in certain situations that I'm not that aware of," she said.

LaVar Ball on Lonzo’s debut: ‘His worst game ever’

LAS VEGAS, JuLy 8 (AP): It took Lonzo Ball 20 seconds to get a near-capacity crowd off its feet in his first summer league game. Just like LaVar taught him.

Ball’s highly anticipated Los Angeles Lakers debut on Friday night started with a flourish on a perfectly timed lob pass to Brandon Ingram. But that was one of the few bright spots for a player Magic Johnson has dubbed as the new face of the Lakers in a 96-93 overtime loss to the Los Angeles Clippers.

The No. 2 overall pick scored just five points and missed 13 of his 15 shots, to the disappointment of a near-capacity crowd that came out to see him. Leave it to his father to sum up the night with some of his trademark straight talk.

“He don’t be discouraged because that’s the worst he can do,” LaVar Ball said. “He can’t go but up. And he still kept them in the game playing his worst game ever. That’s what I like about it.”

Lonzo Ball was 1 for 11 from 3-point range, including a bad

miss from well beyond the line — the kind of daring pull-up the Ball family is known for — with 1:16 to play in regulation.

He was also a little slow to react on defense, including when Brice Johnson made a quick spin past him for a dunk. The Clippers posted the highlight on their Twitter account, calling it a “pretty baller move.”

That’s the kind of target that LaVar’s antics have painted on his son’s back. And it’s much bigger than the purple No. 2 under his name.

“Tough game. We didn’t get the job done,” Lonzo Ball said. “I need to be better.”

Scouts do wonder how that unorthodox shooting stroke will translate to the NBA game. What is not up for debate is the Lakers’ return to must-see status with the pass-first point guard on the trigger and his carnival barker father on the mic.

While LaVar Ball has dropped hints that he could tone down the bombastic comments and unending marketing

of his Big Baller Brand apparel that turned him into an internet villain of sorts during Lonzo’s lone season at UCLA, he was totally in character for his son’s debut.

“The Lakers fans are coming and my boy is gonna bring ’em out,” LaVar Ball crowed at halftime. “Because there’s excitement for the game. It’s entertainment. That boy is going to entertain. He’s been doing it all his life.”

LaVar Ball entered the Thomas & Mack Center to a raucous ovation, flanked by more than a dozen family members.

They watched the game from a raised stage behind one baseline, and as he ascended the stairs for the first time, he raised his hands and pumped his fist to the crowd.

Lonzo Ball got off the bus wearing a black Big Baller t-shirt, red shorts and black Big Baller ZO2 shoes — yes, the ones with the $495 price tag — and did two television interviews before he even changed into his Laker

uniform. A bedazzled, patent leather backpack draped over his shoulders and established NBA players including DeMar DeRozan, D’Angelo Russell and Isaiah Thomas were all in attendance for the game, while Johnson, the new Lakers president of basketball operations, sat courtside.

Lakers games have always been well-attended here in Vegas, just a four-hour drive from Los Angeles. But this one reached another level, with fans piling into the arena three hours before game time and sitting through a Bucks-Cavaliers game before finally getting to the main attraction. And when Lonzo found Ingram for the alley-oop on his first possession, it looked like things were going to come easy.

“I always said get ’em out their chairs on the first play,” LaVar Ball said. “That’s how we used to play with his brothers.

Either hit a long 3-pointer from halfcourt or a dunk.”

But it became clear very quickly that things wouldn’t al-

ways go smoothly. The sophomore Ingram shined with 26 points in 31 minutes, playing with more assertiveness than his celebrated rookie teammate.

Lonzo finished with five assists, four rebounds and two steals.

“It’s got nothing to do with him,” LaVar Ball said. “He’s going to make this team come up and make everybody start passing the ball. And that’s when that chemistry comes in and that’s when that winning comes in.

That’s when the winning comes in. Once you start winning, everybody starts feeling good.”

In that way, LaVar is right on the money.

Lonzo’s clothes are flashy, and the first play was quite a highlight. But the rest of his game was decidedly understated, much like his personality. Magic may have dubbed him the new face of the NBA’s marquee franchise and his father says the rookie is on the Lakers because he spoke it into existence. But there is nothing “look-at-me” about him.

OPERATION BLUEBIRD, thirty years on Unappreciated Acts

I

Athili Sapriina

t is indeed difficult to write negatively about the Assam Rifles. They are doing such a lot of ‘good’, all around us. In fact, when I visited their website, I found the venerable Dalai Lama prominently featured there. The Assam Rifles had apparently facilitated the spiritual leader’s exit from troubled Tibet and has photographs uploaded on its site as proof, one of which is a blessing. It reads thus: May your luck increase to the size of a mountain. May your fame be such as to cover the whole sky. May your knowledge become vast and deep as the sea long and healthy lives to you and hope your work for others, will be a success.

This ‘blessing’ of the Nobel Peace Laureate must be contextualised. The Dalai Lama was fleeing state oppression and the Indian paramilitary outfit was strategically placed to provide succour to the Tibetans.

For most of its existence since 1835 by the Brits, these ‘friends of the hill people’ have been doing much good for the civilians, in India’s northeast and often in far away countries as peacekeepers. They have the resources to rescue people during disasters, take young people to distant states for excursions, sponsor sports and music events, build roads, donate sewing machines, computers, solar panels, even organise ‘peace’ rallies with all the slogans supplied by them.

The Assam Rifles along with the CRPF, BSF, Assam Regiment, Madras Regiment, Gorkha Regiment, Rashtriya Rifles, Territorial Army and a host of other combinations have roamed the Naga areas, most of them leaving behind a trail of blood.

This article is not to undermine

those who pursued what they believed was a sacred duty to serve India’s interests. It is only to question the political masters who have for seven decades relied mostly on a containment policy backed by the military, police, intelligence, administrative, cultural, educational and economic means, all of these occurring within a superstructure of an undeclared martial law, chiefly aided by the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. Some Nagas may declare that they have finally arrived. Today, Naga civilians can more boldly and vocally, aided by social media, voice concerns on the state of affairs, a large part of which pertains to Naga national groups.

While Naga armed groups will understandably be perturbed by this sudden new questioning, there is a sense that every Naga will benefit from this phase. The Naga nation must have this debate. One caution though. This should not be fuelled and directed by the Indian state agencies, as they have always tried with Nagas continuously falling prey to these designs.

Do we have a future with India?

Do we have Delhi as our only pivot? What about the hordes of initiatives aimed towards South East Asia over the past decade?

Will Nagas one day rely on Chamdil (formerly Chandel) Nagas for access to the valleys, cities and peoples of South East Asia?

Will Nagas drive down their Maruti, Toyota, Mahindra, BMW, Chevrolet, Ford and Enfields, just for a weekend jaunt to Bangkok and Yangon.

For those who have that dream, a look at the OPERATION BLUEBIRD is pertinent. Who will ultimately take ownership of those visions will be decided by the questions that we as a peoples are ready to address.

Exactly thirty years ago, on July 9, 1987, the Poumai Naga village of

Oinam witnessed what many observers see as a low point in the interaction between the Indian state and the Naga peoples.

Following a humiliating attack

by Naga rebels, the Indian military led by the Assam Rifles launched an operation to recover arms and ammunition they lost in that attack. Hundreds of Nagas in and around Oinam were subjected to weeks of torture, rape, extrajudicial killings, with some women having to give birth in the open.

Wati Aier’s song read: If my people forget you Oh Oinam; Let them never, never sing again' Today, many a Naga think they can sing again. They live under an illusion that they will make it as a peoples.

It is also an irony that an Indian classical dancer reminds the Nagas of who they were up against.

Uma Sharma is a kathak exponent.

Not long after what happened at Oinam, I watched her perform at the FICCI Auditorium in New Delhi to raise awareness over the Indian military atrocities on Nagas.

Young Nagas got courage to come forward and speak up, simply because we found out that there is a constituency, though miniscule, of Indians who are very clear of what the Indian state should not be doing — wage a war upon, what India calls, her own people.

On every public rally or sit-in demonstration we participated and later organised in Delhi, there were Indians — students, university faculty, scientists, musicians, artists, former soldiers, standing by us. Their numbers were few but inspiring.

Following Oinam, Amnesty International produced a lengthy report titled Operation Bluebird: a case study of torture and extrajudicial executions in Manipur.

The people affected by what the Indian military did thirty years

ago await justice. There has been no letup of Indian military misadventures in other Naga areas since.

Today, Nagas serving in the Indian military are posted in other 'disturbed' regions of India thereby fuelling disharmony among peoples already marginalised. This has gone on while the stranglehold has run deeper with the Indian state able to limit the visions of the Nagas to elections, economic packages and building the administrative acumen of a very few.

Why dig up the past? There is no future without revisiting the past and comprehending where we would have been had our elders not taken a decision – to be free peoples.

The foundations upon which the Indian state has built its vision for the Nagas is thoroughly inadequate. It will not work. Even after a settlement between India and the Nagas is arrived at, we cannot let the future nation be militaristic.

Then again, Nagas have to be ready to raise genuine questions too. What about being able to question Israel’s handling of the Palestinian issue for instance. The vision is to be able to approach issues objectively without prejudices. Why won’t Naga Christians question Israel if Palestinians truly deserve a better deal? Will religion and faith overshadow political and civil misadventures of these two states? Will national security considerations overshadow civil and human rights concerns of those marginalised?

Nagas continue to inspire themselves and other marginalised peoples. A new relationship must result from the numerous levels of interactions between Indians and the Nagas. What about ending with a poser? How about a truth commission between India and Nagas before demanding too much from the intra-Naga process with a similar name?

Atö Luho (Keduvito) Khuzama Village

“B

eing human is not about living a worldly desire or making steadfast money in a short span of time" Lately, We have been witnessing some of the Unappreciated Acts which are commonly trending in our Naga society. We failed to counter with our conscience because these have become a common routine for all. Mostly, we talked about rampant corruption and dirty politics neglecting some of the unethical practices which is commonly happening and hampering the progress of our Naga society.

To blindly accuse someone is not appropriate without understanding the ground reality. Talking bullshit and countering one another doesn't prove anything because in the end of the day people comes to know what is right and wrong or lay astray by those arrogant information. Don't we come across some people in social and print media who are branded with the tag of 'never back down attitude', who always considered themselves right, and defend their piece of thoughts not leaving space for correction.

Being optimistic is a hard thing to follow as the stink of Corruption enroot our society. Speaking frankly, Corruption isn't only about Unabated taxation by Undergrounds or

by Government Officials in the line of duty; it has some-

thing more to do with daily public affairs. In Business sector some of our people have become so engrossed in profit making that they leave no space for public consideration/welfare. We are made to avail the service not by Choice but situation compels.

In this age of digitalisation Internet has become a common routine for Online transactions, printings & payments. Taking advantages of this some Entrepreneur started doing bad Business by charging the customers the double amount as compared to other towns and cities outside our state perimeter.

The grievance of monsoon season have so much to offer on the problematic side when it comes to Commuters. With the deplorable condition of roads the taxi walas starts to amass an extra amount without giving a second thought on the 365 days of the year which they genuinely depend on the common travellers for their livelihood. This is not Opportunity but an act of pure greed which leaves no room for Common sense. One humorous fact is that some taxi driver even charge extra amount for night trip, traffic jam and road diversion.

One interesting fact which you can start your day in a gloomy mood is to purchase a kilo of meat in the market. The butcher would surely add an extra piece of meat or sometime some unwanted piece after the usual weigh making you a fool like person. This

has become a usual routine for us that we don't pay heed to weigh tampering anymore.

Earlier our state stood by the principles of Christainhood. Nowadays, the tag of 'Nagaland for Christ' has become a mockery to many people.

We have been witnessing different interpretation of gospel. Preachers defying Christain principles and chasing for worldly desires. Instead of soul saving some have become money monger. The theological works itself depicts the source of employment leaving beside their dutiful nature. This have given rise to many atheist in our society.

Our naiveté can be seen when we talked only about problems instead of solution. We tend to live by the principle of: "If it is not my problem than it is not my concern". This has given rise to many Organisations in our Land because no one is concern for the welfare of a particular citizen.

No sooner it gives birth to a new Organisation with the voice: 'If it is not us who will fight for our right'. This trend gave rise to our land with the new slogan "Land of Organisations". And the best part is that we don't want to listen to others because we are the right One's.

Let us be wise enough to take into account of the things that is happening in our Land before it Overshadows our society. There are many Unappreciated Acts to highlight but let me leave space for other writers.

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.

Sunday 09•07•2017

EntErtainmEnt

02:00 PM

Off-spinner Harbhajan BTS gains recognition from Billboard and Fuse TV Singh to debut as singer

08:00 PM

11:00 AM | 05:00 PM

Paul Rudd returns as

in new

P

V

eteran off-spinner Harbhajan Singh is breaking into a new field. He will tweak his vocal chords for a single composed by Mithoon. The song will celebrate the contribution of real life heroes who have striven towards the welfare of the nation.

"It's actually a thought that Harbhajan shared with me. We have been close friends since a while now and he has always expressed his interest in music. He wanted to do something to celebrate our national heritage and culture," Mithoon said in a statement.

He added, "We were always contemplating on working together and

were in talks of collaborating on a single since over a year now. This concept cropped up on his birthday and while there were many ideas exchanged, this particular idea appealed to us the most." "I always believe music should address a higher purpose and collaborations of ideas should bring meaning to the fore."

The video will be shot across different states of India and will feature the real lives of common men who can be counted as the driving force of the country. The single will be sung in Hindi and English combined, and will premiere in December this year.

I

t seems like BTS, also known as Bangtan Boys, has done it again. The said boy group has gained international attention again after the release of their remake of an old iconic South Korean song, “Come Back Home”.

On July 5, Seo Taji released the official music video of the remake of “Come Back Home” on their official YouTube channel. The said song was originally performed

by Seo Taiji and Boys in October 1995. It was a controversial song, criti-

Source: IANS

cized for being similar to a 1993 popular international song but because of its gangster rap, which was something that South Korea was not accustomed to in the old days, and its inspirational message, it became an iconic song.

In celebration of Seo Taiji and Boys’ 25th anniversary, BTS has remade “Come Back Home” and even released a whole new music video for it. The boys were not featured in the said music video because they were reportedly busy with other projects when they were recording

the song. With the powerful vocals that BTS displayed in the remake, the song has gained international attention including from the music giants like Billboard and Fuse TV. Billboard was all praise for BTS and even pointed out some of the member’s contribution to the song. Fuse TV and Billboard commended the young boy group for recreating an iconic song by fusing modern day lyrics and new vocal style without having to sacrifice the similar inspirational message that the

original group expressed.

Fuse TV added that BTS is no doubt the key artist of the future of Korean pop music after showcasing hidden talents in the remake of “Come Back Home”.

BTS has gained international attention after they received the Top Social Artist Award at the recent Billboard Music Awards. Big Hit Entertainment recently announced new logos for the group for their identity rebranding. BTS is currently gearing up for a comeback.

Source: Korea Portal

Bollywood personalities attend Dree Festival in itanager

I

C M Y K

n Itanagar, the Dree Festival celebrations at the Dree ground was added more glamour by the presence of Bollywood actress Zeenat Aman and Rebecca Changkija Sema, first Bollywood producer from Nagaland and Director Shiraz Henry.

Chief Guest Nabam Rebia, Minister, UD, Town Planning, Housing, ULB, Law and Justice urged the Bollywood personalities to promote tourism and people of Arunachal Pradesh.

Rebecca Changkija Sema sharing her experience said, “We are all set and going on floor to start our project at Arunachal Pradesh. We got very positive responds from the people out there,

the whole team is excited. I get so much of love and support from our 8 states of Northeast. I will work harder for our land.”

Zeenat Aman who has visited Nagaland twice with Rebecca Changkija Sema earlier stated that youth of northeast are working very hard and bringing glory to their own land and it is high time we all acknowledge them.

Director Shiraz Henry said, “There was the time people hardly knew about northeast but today it’s my 5th visited to northeast and I feel at home. Northeast has a very bright future. People are very kind and hard working, we all must support each other and work together.”

'Avengers' movie

aul Rudd's Scott Lang, aka Ant-Man, was photographed on the sets of "Avengers: Infinity War".

Rudd is the latest actor, who has been spotted filming for the upcoming Marvel movie, after pictures of Robert Downey Jr (Iron Man), Benedict Cumberbatch (Doctor Strange), Mark Ruffalo (Hulk) and Benedict Wong (Wong) from the set in Atlanta surfaced online, reported Ace Showbiz.

Rudd, in Scott Lang's daily outfit, was seen running with all his might from someone or something unseen in the images.

His character was last seen in "Captain America: Civil War" being freed

by Captain America from The Raft, a prison meant to keep those who refused to sign the Sokovia Accords in check.

This storyline has made Scott once again a fugitive.

"Avengers: Infinity War" will also bring back Chris Evans as Captain America, Chadwick Boseman as

Black Panther, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, Sebastian Stan as Winter Soldier, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Tom Holland as Spider-Man, Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, Elizabeth Olsen as Scarlet Witch, and Paul Bettany as Vision.

Josh Brolin as well as "Guardians of the Galaxy" cast including Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel are also set to star in it.

Anthony and Joe Russo are directing the movie, which is slated to open in theatres on May 4, 2018.

Source: PTI

Sanctuary Choir of Union Baptist Church will be presenting a choral concert on the theme 'To Love our God' on July 9 at UBC, Kohima from 5:00 pm onwards. The concert will also feature UBC Children's Choir and Teens Choir.

12

Sunday 09•07•2017

SPORTS

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

Valtteri Bottas beats Sebastian Vettel to Austria pole Hamilton handed five-place grid penalty SPIELBERG, JuLy 8 (REutERS): Lewis Hamilton's hopes of starting the Austrian Grand Prix from pole position for the third year in a row on Sunday have been dashed by a gearbox change that triggered an automatic five place grid penalty.

The drop means the Mercedes driver, second in the championship behind Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, cannot equal Michael Schumacher's pole position record of 68 at his home British Grand Prix next week.

The triple world champion, who is currently on 66 poles and won in Austria last year, will have to wait until Hungary at the end of the

month at the earliest.

He had been favourite to take the top slot at the scenic Red Bull Ring after dominating Friday's two free practice sessions with Vettel second fastest.

Qualifying is on Saturday after a final practice and Hamilton will be hoping that he is fastest to minimise the drop and that Finnish team mate Valtteri Bottas is second to deny Vettel the top slot.

A Mercedes team spokesman said the gearbox problem resulted from the previous race in Azerbaijan, where Hamilton started on pole but finished fifth after having to pit to fix a loose headrest.

Formula One regulations stipulate that gearboxes must last six races unless a driver fails to finish for whatever reason.

The Formula One technical delegate said in a statement he

had been informed by Mercedes last Tuesday that the gearbox was damaged and needed changing, a detail the team had kept secret.

Hamilton, who had told reporters earlier that pole was the goal, is 14 points behind Vettel after eight of 20 races. Both drivers have won three races.

The pair clashed in Baku when Vettel drove into the back of the Mercedes while they were behind the safety car and then banged wheels angrily after pulling alongside.

Vettel, who finished fourth in Baku, apologised for the incident of "road rage" -- and for claiming that Hamilton 'brake-tested' him -- after a hearing in Paris on Monday.

Mercedes ruled out that contact as the cause of the gearbox problems.

Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas (C) celebrates pole with Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel finishing second and Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton who will start eighth after being awarded a penalty. (Reuters)

C M Y K

SPIELBERG, AuStRIA, JuLy 8 (AGEncIES): Valtteri Bottas edged Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel to pole position by just 0.042s in Austria, while Lewis Hamilton will start eighth when his gearbox change grid penalty is applied after qualifying third.

Bottas's benchmark of 1:04.251 was set early in the session and gave the Finn the second pole position of his career. Vettel claimed second, safe in the knowledge main title rival Hamilton will drop down the order ahead of the grand prix. However, having progressed through Q2 on super-softs instead of ultrasofts, Hamilton will start the grand prix on an alternate strategy to the quick-

est cars around him, setting up a fascinating race if the three-time world champion can quickly climb through the order.

The three drivers looked set for one final run in the closing seconds of the session, before Romain Grosjean's stopped Haas prompted yellow flags, prematurely ending Q3. It meant Hamilton was left to rue a mistake at the top of Turn 3 during his own run which looked to have cost him at least a spot ahead of Vettel in the standings.

Kimi Raikkonen finished a distant fourth, 0.528s on fellow Finn Bottas. However, Ferrari go into the race knowing it can put the pole-sitter under direct pressure with two cars

as Hamilton fights through the field from further back.

Red Bull settled for the now-customary position behind the top two teams, with Daniel Ricciardo edging teammate Max Verstappen by 0.1s at the team's home circuit. Verstappen finished the session in the gravel having run off the track at Turn 8, though by that point the session had been neutralised by Grosjean's stoppage.

It was Grosjean who finished seventh, capping a strong weekend for the Haas team, putting him ahead of the two Mercedespowered Force Indias. After their controversial incidents in the previous two

races, teammates Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon were split by just 0.069s.

Carlos Sainz -- who appeared fired up following a weekend of criticism from Red Bull's senior management over comments he made about his future -rounded out the top ten with an impressive 10th position for Toro Rosso.

Renault's Nico Hulkenberg missed out on a space in the top-ten shootout by

just 0.05s in the closing seconds of Q2, instead having to settle for 11th on the grid ahead of the McLaren pair.

Though Honda has introduced it's new 'spec-three' power unit this weekend, McLaren had to revert to an older power unit for Alonso's car in qualifying after encountering problems with the MGU-H ahead of FP3.

Despite reverting to a lower-spec engine the Spaniard finished in 12th,

0.15s up on teammate Stoffel Vandoorne, who kept the upgraded unit in his car.

Despite being out-qualified by Alonso Vandoorne finished the session declaring the new engine was "definite progress", signing off with a rallying cry of "we're getting there" for the beleaguered McLarenHonda outfit.

Toro Rosso's Daniil Kvyat was 14th, finishing a long way down on team-

mate Sainz's time, in what has been a weekend littered with issues for Toro Rosso. Kevin Magnussen will line up 15th having failed to emerge from the garage in Q2 after suffering a rear suspension failure mid-way through the opening session, meaning Haas had to settle for just one car in the top-ten shootout after a promising weekend.

Williams were the shock casualty of the opening session, with both Felipe Massa and Lance Stroll failing to advance in 17th and 18th.

The team has introduced a big upgrade package this weekend on what was expected to be one of its

strongest circuits given the power-sensitive nature of the track and the fact Massa claimed pole there in 2014.

Instead, the team suffered a double elimination just one race after Stroll claimed the team's first podium of the season.

Renault's Jolyon Palmer was unable to ease the pressure on his shoulders, missing out on a spot in Q2 by just 0.04s. The Englishman finished the session knowing the stewards will investigate an incident where he appeared to block Raikkonen during a flying lap. Sitting at the foot of the order on the other side of the Williams pair were the Sauber drivers, with Marcus Ericsson out-qualfying Pascal Wehrlein.

Rooney at Everton for transfer talks Inter-School Football Tournament Muguruza powers past Cirstea into fourth round Rüzhükhrie GHSS enters Pool-B finals

LOnDOn, JuLy 8 (REutERS): Manchester United's former England captain Wayne Rooney was pictured at Everton's training ground on Saturday ahead of a proposed transfer back to the boyhood favourites he first joined aged nine.

Sky Sports News reported that he would be having

a medical.

With a fee agreed for Belgian striker Romelu Lukaku to move in the opposite direction, the way appeared to be clear for the 31-year-old Rooney to leave Old Trafford after 13 years.

He has played more than 550 games for them, scoring 253 goals to be-

come their all-time leading scorer.

But last season he was no longer an automatic selection under manager Jose Mourinho and also lost his place in the England squad.

United were expected to fly to the United States without him to continue their pre-season preparations on Sunday.

Our Correspondent Kohima | July 8

Rüzhükhrie Government Higher Secondary School (RGHSS) today registered a 2-0 win over Mt. Hermon Higher Secondary School to find a berth in the Pool-B finals of the ongoing 1st Kohima District Inter-school Football Tournament 2017 here at Khuochiezie.

LOnDOn, JuLy 8 (REutERS): Former runner-up Garbine Muguruza continued her untroubled progress at Wimbledon with a 6-2 6-2 thrashing of Romania's Sorana Cirstea to reach the fourth round on Saturday.

Cirstea, who reached the third round after American opponent Bethanie Mattek-Sands suffered a horrible knee injury on Thursday, matched Mugu-

ruza for power but made too many errors to pose a serious threat to the 14th seed.

The Romanian held on to her opening service game with an ace but Muguruza was quickly into her groove and reeled off the next five games before Cirstea managed to stem the tide briefly.

The same happened in the second set. Cirstea again held in the open-

ing game with a backhand winner, before Muguruza changed gear and went on a five-game streak.

Muguruza, 23, showed there was more to her game than power with some silky dropshots as she powered on to victory in a little over an hour on Court Two. She will face top seed Angelique Kerber or American Shelby Rogers in the next round.

Keviyabei-u and Menuoletuo scored the goals in the 22nd minute and 58th minute respectively.

With the win, RGHSS will take on Ministers' Hill Baptist Higher Secondary School in the Pool-B finals on July 11.

POOL‘A’ FINALS July 10: 2:00 PM Mt. Sinai HSS vs G.Rio School

MPL 2017: PowerComm FC officially crowned the Champion Mayweather-McGregor to begin

media tour July 11 in Los Angeles Reuters

The MPL 2017 Champion PowerComm FC poses for picture with their trophy along with the officials and administrator of the Morning Premier League.

Morung Express News Kohima | July 8

The PowerComm FC was officially crowned the Champion of the Morning Premier League 2017 during the closing ceremony programme of current season held here at the Unit Ground, 4th NAP Battalion, Thizama.

With a decisive 7-4 win over Amur Falcon FC during the last encounter of the season on July 7, Pow-

erComm took the title with superior goals differences over Medical XI. While the final tally of both the team stand at 41 points from 18 matches, PowerComm with a superior goal difference topped the MPL’s League table.

Individually, Mele Pucho from Amur Falcon FC was the leading goal scorer of the season with _ goals and bestowed ‘the Golden Boot’ title while

his teammate Ben Tungoe got the Golden Glove title.

Dikwa from Morning Football Club was declared the player of the season The PowerComm FC was also bagged the ‘Fair Play Award’ for the 2017 season.

Meanwhile, an exhibition match between MPL XI and CASE Premier League XI, from Dimapur was also held during the closing programme. The MPL XI won the match 5-1.

Undefeated boxer Floyd Mayweather and mixed martial arts champion Conor McGregor will begin a four-day international media tour next week to promote their Aug. 26 boxing match in Las Vegas.

Mayweather and McGregor, two of the most popular athletes in their respective sports, will hold their first public meeting in front of the media on July 11 in Los Angeles followed by stops in Toronto, New York and London over the next three days.

Each event, likely to provide plenty of humorous and heated exchanges, will be open to the public.

May w e at h e r, w h o came out of retirement

for this fight, is widely regarded as one of the best defensive fighters ever and the 40-year-old American prides himself on his ability to evade punishment with his movement and to make adjustments on the fly.

Boastful Irishman McGregor, the UFC's reigning lightweight champion and former featherweight champion, is known as much for his bravado as for his explosive knockout power inside an MMA octagon.

There is expected to be plenty of interest in the fight, which will be held inside T-Mobile Arena, even though there is also scepticism about how competitive it will be given that McGregor has never boxed professionally before.

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