Myanmar: People observe ‘silent protest’ as

Military Rulers Extend Emergency

point appeared to be over Palestinian prisoners held by Israel on security charges. Israel’s National Security Minister, Itamar BenGvir, an ultranationalist and a senior member of the most right-wing government in Israel’s history, has pledged even tougher treatment of the prisoners in recent days.

Ben-Gvir said rockets from Gaza won’t stop him

Brother of UK ex-PM, resigns as director of Adani linked firm

LONDON, FEB 2 (PTI):

Lord Jo Johnson, younger brother of former British prime minister Boris Johnson, has resigned his nonexecutive directorship of a UK-based investment firm linked with the now-withdrawn Adani Enterprises Follow-on Public Offer (FPO).

‘The Financial Times’ newspaper referenced UK Companies House records to reveal that 51-year-old Lord Johnson had been appointed as a director of London-based Elara Capital Plc in June last year and resigned on Wednesday, the day when the Adani Group announced the withdrawal of the FPO.

Elara, which described itself as a capital markets business raising funds for Indian corporates, was among the bookrunners on the FPO. Johnson insisted he has been assured of the company’s “good standing”

Jo Johnson

and has stepped down due to his own lack of “domain expertise”.

“I joined the board of Elara Capital, an India-focused investment firm based in London, as an independent non-executive director last June in the hope of making a contribution to UK-India trade and investment ties, which I have long supported and co-written a book about,” Jo Johnson said in a statement after news of his resignation was announced by the newspa- per. “I have consistently received assurances from Elara Capital that it is compliant with its legal obligations and in good standing with regulatory bodies. At the same time, I now recognise that this is a role that requires greater domain expertise in specialised areas of financial regulation than I anticipated and, accordingly, I have resigned from the board,” said Johnson, a House of Lords peer. from implementing punitive policies against the prisoners. He called for an urgent Security Cabinet meeting to discuss the issue. In Palestinian society, prisoners are generally revered as heroes, with virtually every Palestinian family having had members jailed by Israel on security charges over the course of the decades-long conflict.

According to the newspaper, it is Elara’s asset management business that is under the spotlight after US short seller Hindenburg Research linked Mauritiusbased funds run by the London firm with Adani Group companies. The Adani Group has categorically denied Hindenburg’s accusations, calling them a “malicious combination of selective misinformation and stale, baseless and discredited allegations”.

NAYPYI DAW, FEB 3 (AGENCIES): Myanmar’s Junta has extended the country’s state of emergency by another six months. This could likely delay elections that the military had pledged to hold in August this year. As citizen groups across Myanmar observed a “silent protest” on the anniversary of a 2021 military coup, country’s military rulers extended the state of emergency by another six months. At the same time, protesters and exiled civilian leaders on Wednesday vowed to end what they called the army’s “illegal power grab”. In major cities across Myanmar, people observed a self-imposed lockdown. Hundreds of democracy supporters attended rallies in Thailand and the Philippines. Junta leader General Min Aung Hlaing, in a meeting on Tuesday with the army-backed National Defence and Security Council (NDSC), also said multi-party elections must be held “as the people desire”. General Min Aung Hlaing did not specify a timeline for the polls.

“Although according to the section 425 of the constitution, (a state of emergency) can only be granted two times, the current situation is under unusual circumstances and it is suitable to extend it one more time of six months,”

Acting President Myint Swe said at the meeting broadcast by MRTV.

The Southeast Asian country’s top generals led a coup in February 2021 after five years of tense power-sharing under a quasi- civilian political system created by the military. The country’s already intense ethnic tensions aggravated as military took over the power, leaving a trail of upended lives in its wake. In the main commercial cities of Yangon and Mandalay, images on social media showed deserted streets in what coup opponents called a “silent protest” against the junta. Democracy activists had urged people not to go out between 10 AM and 3 PM. There was also a rally in Yangon by about 100 supporters of the military, flanked by soldiers, photographs showed.

Iran blames Israel for drone attack; threatens retaliation

DUBAI, FEB 2 (AP): Iran on Thursday blamed Israel for a drone attack that targeted a military workshop in its central city of Isfahan over the weekend, warning that it “reserves its legitimate and inherent right” to retaliate.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations, in a letter it published on its website, attributed the attack , which happened late Saturday, to Israel.

“Early investigations suggest that the Israeli regime was responsible for this attempted act of aggression,” the letter signed by Iranian Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani said. The letter did not elaborate on what evidence supported Iran’s suspicion.

Israeli officials declined to comment. However, Israel has carried out a series of attacks targeting Iran’s nuclear program and other sites since the collapse of Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers as part of a yearslong

Eyewitness footage shows what is said to be the moment of an explosion at a military industry factory in Isfahan, Iran (Reuters) shadow war between the Mideast rivals.

Details on the Isfahan attack, which happened around 11:30 p.m. Saturday, still remain scarce, days after the assault. A Defense Ministry statement said three drones were launched at the facility, with two of them successfully shot down. A third apparently made it through to strike the building, causing “minor damage” to its roof and wounding no one, the ministry said.

N. Korea warns of ‘overwhelming nuclear force’ to counter US IMF rejects Pakistan’s revised circular debt management plan: Report

SEOUL, FEB 2 (AP):

North Korea said Thursday it’s prepared to counter U.S. military moves with the “most overwhelming nuclear force” as it warned that the expansion of the United States’ military exercises with rival South Korea is pushing tensions to an “extreme red line.”

The statement by Pyongyang’s Foreign Ministry came in response to comments by U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who said Tuesday in Seoul that the United States would increase its deployment of advanced military assets to the Korean Peninsula, including fighter jets and aircraft carriers, as it strengthens joint training and operational planning with South Korea. South Korea’s security jitters have risen since North Korea test-fired dozens of missiles in 2022, including potentially nuclear-capable ones designed to strike targets in South Korea and the U.S. mainland. In a statement attributed to an unidentified spokesperson of its Foreign Ministry, North Korea said the expansion of the allies’ drills is threatening to turn the Korean Peninsula into a “huge war arsenal and a more critical war zone.” The statement said the North is prepared to counter any short- or longterm military challenge with the “most overwhelming nuclear force.”

Pak blast: Cops admit to lapse

PESHAWAR, FEB 2 (AGENCIES): The suicide bomber who killed 101 people inside a mosque at a police headquarters in Pakistan was wearing a uniform and helmet when he staged the attack, a police chief said Thursday. Hundreds of cops were attending afternoon prayers in what should have been a tightly controlled compound in the northwest city of Peshawar on Monday when the blast erupted, causing a wall to collapse and crush officers, reports AFP.

“Those on duty didn’t check him because he was in a police uniform... It was a security lapse,” Moazzam Jah Ansari, the head of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province police force, told a news conference.

Police have a “fair idea” about who the bomber was after matching his head found at the scene with CCTV images.

“There’s an entire network behind him,” Ansari said, explaining that the bomber had not planned the assault alone.

Authorities are investigating how a major breach could happen in one of the most sensitive areas of the city, which houses intelligence and counter-terrorism bureaus and is next door to the regional secretariat.

It is Pakistan’s deadliest assault in several years and the worst since violence began to resurge in the region after the Afghan Taliban takeover in Kabul in 2021.

ISLAMABAD, FEB 2 (AGENCIES): The International Monetary Fund (IMF) review mission has rejected Pakistan’s revised Circular Debt Management Plan (CDMP). It has called on the Pakistan government to increase the electricity tariff in the range of Pakistani Rupees (PKR) 1112.50 per unit to restrict the additional subsidy at PKR 335 billion for the current fiscal year, The News International reported. The International Monetary Fund review mission led by Nathen Porter arrived in Islamabad on Monday and both sides will continue to hold talks to

Pakistanirupee plungestohistoriclow

Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency later described the drones as “quadcopters equipped with bomblets.” Quadcopters, which get their name from having four rotors, typically operate from short ranges by remote control. Iranian state television later aired footage of debris from the drones, which resembled commercially available quadcopters. It remains unclear what the workshop produced. Iravani referred to it only as a “a workshop complex of the Iranian Defense Ministry” in his letter.

Israel had been initially suspected as possibly being behind the attack. Iran’s Intelligence Ministry in July claimed to have broken up a plot to target sensitive sites around Isfahan.

A segment aired on Iranian state television in October included purported confessions by alleged members of Komala, a Kurdish opposition party that is exiled from Iran and now is based in Iraq, that they planned to target a military aerospace facility in Isfahan after being trained by Israel’s Mossad intelligence service. However, activists say Iran has aired hundreds of coerced confession on state TV over the last decade. Iravani’s letter to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the Security Council warned that Tehran could respond to the attack.

UK defends BBC independence

LONDON, FEB 2 (PTI): complete the pending ninth review under the USD 7 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF). Circular debt occurs when one entity facing problems with its cash inflows does not make payments to its suppliers and creditors, according to The News International. The IMF has called the revised CDMP “unrealistic”, which is made on the basis of certain wrong assumptions.

Office Of The Mission Board

CHRISTIAN REVIVAL CHURCH SOVIMA CHUMOUKEDIMA : NAGALAND DECLARATION

This is to notify that Christian Revival Church, Sovima has withdrawn the Management of Morning Star High School, Ga-Dangar-Chuk, Gogamukh, Dist - North Lakhimpur Assam with immediate effect.

Therefore, any advertisement relating to the school mentioned above, the Mission Board of CRC Sovima would not be held responsible.

(RUOKUONUO RüPREO) Secretary Mission Board

Contact : 8730882347

The Pakistani rupee resumed its downwards slide on Thursday after two modest sessions as the “optimism surrounding the government and IMF talks scaled back”, local media reported.

The Pakistani rupee depreciated by Rs 2.52 to settle at Rs 271.35 at the close of the day. However, the local currency touched 272.17 against the dollar during intra-day trade, Geo News reported.

The rupee had closed at Rs 268.83 on Wednesday.

The UK government has defended the BBC as a media outlet “independent in its output” in the wake of widespread Indian expats protests against the controversial documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Addressing reporters at Downing Street on Wednesday, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s spokesperson echoed a statement issued by Foreign Secretary James Cleverly in Parliament earlier this week to add that the government continues to invest in its relationship with India.

“The BBC is independent in its output and we would stress that we continue to regard India as an incredibly important interna- tional partner,” the spokesperson said in response to a question about India’s condemnation of the documentary ‘India: The Modi Question’ questioning the then chief minister’s role in the 2002 Godhra riots.

“We will be investing heavily in our relationship with India over the coming decades and we’re confident it will only go from strength to strength,” the spokesperson said. It followed a similar response by Cleverly in the House of Commons on Tuesday, when he responded to a question from a Conservative Party colleague on the assurances the UK government had given to India in the wake of coordinated expats protests against the BBC over the weekend.

The NDPP 31-Akuluto A/C would like to put on record that it appreciates the pre-poll alliance between the BJP and the NDPP to contest the general election to the 14th Nagaland Legislative Assembly.

It also appluads the wisdom of the leadership on the 40-20 seat sharing formula agreed upon, and while regretting that the 31-Akuluto A/C seat was not alloted to the NDPP, it is not averse to the fact that the seat was alloted to the BJP candidate and the sitting MLA Shri. Kazheto Kinimi.

And hence, upholding the pre-poll agreements the NDPP 31 Akuluto A/C unanimously declares its alliance and unwavering support to the BJP candidate Shri. Kazheto Kinimi. We congratulate his candidature.

Niheto Shohe Bokato Assumi President General Secretary NDPP 31-Akuluto A/C NDPP 31-Akuluto A/C

World’s oldest preserved brain found in prehistoric fish fossil

The “oldest example of a well-preserved vertebrate brain” has been identified in a 319 million-year-old fish fossil.

The fossilised Coccocephalus wildi was found in a coal mine in Lancashire more than a century ago and had been sitting in the archives of Manchester Museum.

Research by teams from universities in Birmingham and Michigan found its skull contained a brain and cranial nerves.

Palaeontologist Dr Sam Giles said the “unexpected find” gave a “startling insight” into brain evolution. The fossil of the now-extinct fish was originally recovered from a layer of soapstone in the roof of the Lancashire mine and was first scientifically described in 1925.

Though only its skull was recovered, scientists from the University of Birmingham (UoB) and the University of Michigan