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Dimapur VOL. III ISSUE 319 www.morungexpress.com Monday, November 17, 2008 12 pages Rs. 3

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Along LongkumerMorung Express News

IN A major development for the rul-ing Nagaland People’s Front (NPF), its Secretary General Chubatemjen Ao has reportedly resigned from his post put-ting in his official papers to the party’s president ahead of the next NPF general convention to be held at Kohima on No-vember 18. Highly reliable sources with-in the NPF confirmed that the secretary general personally wrote to the NPF president, Dr Shurhozelie Liezietsu, on November 1 making clear his decision to vacate the office of the secretary gen-eral. A copy of the resignation letter was also forwarded to the chairman of the NPF Election Board. Former minister and presently Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha, Khekiho Zhimomi is reported to be heading the 11-member Election Board constituted on Novem-

ber 4 by the party president.When contacted, Zhimomi did not

mention about the resignation of Chu-batemjen but disclosed that Dr Shurho-zelie will continue as the party president. While Dr Shurhozelie will be the only consensus candidate for the post of presi-dent, it is now all but certain that the NPF will have a new secretary general. Zhim-omi indicated that a “consensus candi-date” has already been shortlisted to take over from party veteran Chubatemjen. Party sources informed that the final list of the shortlisted ‘consensus candidates’ will be forwarded to the Central Execu-tive Committee tomorrow for taking a fi-nal decision. Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio has reportedly endorsed the continuation of Dr Shurhozelie as president in what is seen as an effort to ensure continuity even as the party looks to the future.

While it is not clear what could have prompted Chubatemjen to quit

his post, reliable sources disclosed that the senior party leader had cited “more than one reason” for taking such a major decision. It was reported that the secre-tary general had raised several pertinent issues confronting the NPF, but which were “not taken up seriously”. Accord-ing to sources, one of the major points raised by Chubatemjen during a post-election Central Executive Commit-tee meeting earlier in April, was on the question of how to ensure that the gov-ernment including the MLAs remain accountable to the party.

The outgoing secretary general was reportedly of the view that it is the par-ty which runs the government through their elected representatives. Wanting the NPF to be modeled on the lines of ‘Democratic Centralism’ as practiced by the Left parties, it was reported that Chubatemjen had even made sugges-tions that the ministers/parliamentary

secretaries address the NPF Central leaders at least twice a month, meaning that the party was kept informed of the activities of at least two departments in a month. Obviously this did not elicit much support or response from the par-ty itself nor did it go down very well with those in the government.

During the same meeting, Chu-batemjen reportedly expressed concern over the “the lack of discipline within the party” and that many in the party were “uncommitted and unclear” in their “political principles and visions” whereby “some were joining or remain-ing in the party only for personal ambi-tions or for some gainful privileges with-out having any vision for the people”. The secretary general also reportedly suggested that the terms and conditions for enrolment in the party needed review and to make it more stringent.

continued on page 3

NPF looks for Continuity & ChangeParty Secretary General quits; Dr Shurhozelie to be re-elected President

Al NgullieMorung Express News

THE MEDIA in Nagaland is in a state of changeover – not so much for the inevitable changes which functional purposes of his-tory and change compel, but a shift in the paradigm of the very purpose itself. The piv-otal cause for this paradigm shift, amongst others, in the Nagaland media, is widely at-tributed to the gradual but inevitable rise of ‘realization’ in the minds of the harmo-nizing factors, which impact the role of the media. These harmonizing factors include the Naga masses and on the other hand, the growing indispensability and realization of the supreme impor-tance that public plat-forms can actually cre-ate opinions of remedy and positive change. Or worst, otherwise.

November 16 is National Press Day. The day is symbolic of a free and responsible Press movement in India, as much as it is an affir-mation that the media is the moral watchdog to ensuring standards of holistic humanity. This was the mutual and widely expressed opinion, of the journalists and media persons in the state The Morung Express interacted with, in the backdrop of National Press Day.

In the conversations shared with senior media persons, three mutual and unanimous points kept surfacing all too often: the grad-ual “awakening process” of the masses to the role of the media as watchdog of the society; the insufferable tendency of certain sections and organizations in Nagaland, to dictate and intimidate what the media ought to do or not, and thirdly, the need for the new gen-eration media to engage in generating debate and pro-action, apart from the established utility of expending information. The three points – realization about the indispensabil-

ity of the media, exploitation, or “bullying” by certain sections and debate-creating are observed to be the very reflections of the stage the Nagaland media is currently in.

“There are ways we can improve on” said Monalisa Changkija, Editor of one of the oldest English dailies in the state, Nagaland Page. “We have to come out on our own and not follow the trend set by the national, re-gional or even international media” Chang-kija explained. Queried on the “ways” to be improved, Changkija pointed to the quality of information-gathering. Interestingly, she held view that news reporting – which, these days, are generally “poor” – was much ‘better in the eighties’. Another point to the lacunae is the

media community not engaging extensively in analyzing situations or generating opinions for wider participation of citizens’ minds on is-

sues. Sensations – criminal issues or political vice – may not necessarily be the only ones to merit “investigative journalism”, she pointed out. It could be any issue, to be in-depth and this is a lack. “This is one of our weaknesses” Changkija said.

Conversely, Editor of Eastern Mirror Diethono Nakhro weighted a good weight of changes that have taken place over the last several years. She said the way to broaching issues have translated into what she called ‘conscious reporting’. “Certainly, we have a long way to go. Definitely we are seeing a lot of changes, in the sense, of reporting the ideas we put across…there is more con-scious-reporting now” Nakhro said.

However, Nakhro, like all the journalists this daily interacted with, agreed that a large section of the Naga society has yet to grasp the idea of what the media, and what tacit role it plays, is all about.

continued on page 3

Nagaland Media: Throes of Rebirth

‘Media in state not ‘independent’’

Naga Idol for greater church role in AIDS fi ght Morung Express NewsMokokchung | November 15

THE CHURCH, the government and every concerned citizen should play a more effective and bigger role in the fight against HIV/AIDS especially against stigma and discrimination, ac-cording to winner of the NSACS Naga Idol 3.08, Toshinaro who is going to be the brand ambassador of the Nagaland State AIDS Control Society (NSACS).

Interacting with The Morung Ex-press this morning at Tourist Lodge here

before her departure for Kohima, Toshin-aro expressed desire to reach out to those who are infected and affected by the dis-ease. “I hope and pray that I would be able to reach out to those people,” she said.

Confessing that her interest in the contest intensified once it was declared that this year’s winner would become the brand ambassador of NSACS, Toshinaro gave reasons that her interest was mostly because she wanted to ‘contribute some-thing to the society’. Toshinaro reiter-ated that the state has a high rate of peo-ple infected with AIDS and lamented

the stigma and discrimination. ‘People don’t come out in the open’ and ‘declare that they are suffering with the disease’, thereby leading to more and more infec-tions, he explained.

In this regard, Toshinaro said the church should play a major role in tack-ling the disease and reach out to those liv-ing in misery with AIDS. “It is affecting many people’s life and I think the church people have a bigger work, they should take the lead initiative to help out to those people who are lonely,” she said.

continued on page 3

A baby boy cries as he is vaccinated against measles in a camp for displaced people, on Sunday in Kibati, north of Goma in eastern Congo. (AP Photo)

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17 November 2008Monday2 Dimapur The Morung ExpressLOCAL

MEx FilePVSU informs I Div holdersKOHIMA, NOVEMBER 16 (MExN): The Pangti Village Students’ Union has requested all the first di-vision holders (Class X & above) to submit one Xerox copy each of their marksheet and admit card to any PVSU executive members. Stating this in a release, the Union’s information and publicity secretary, Renjamo E Odyuo, has informed that the last date for submission of the same has been fixed for November 20. For further information, one may contact Boremo Ngullie, educa-tion & statistical secretary, at mobile no. 9862875773.

Shops in Chumukedima to remain open till 8 pmDIMAPUR, NOVEMBER 16 (MExN): The Chu-mukedima Students’ Union (CSU) has declared that all shops and business establishments within its juris-diction are to remain open till 8 pm from December 1 till January 1, 2009, in view of the coming festive sea-son. A press release from the union office further an-nounced that the union members would keep a close vigil every evening until the shops closed during the stipulated time, and in case of any complaints or prob-lems, the union has asked the concerned person to con-tact the following numbers: 9436013327, 99862228726, 9856702397 or 9856461424. The CSU further informed on its ban on any form of donation, like Christmas car-ols, door-to-door donation, etc., in the name of the fes-tive season.

ESSU convenes meeting DIMAPUR, NOVEMBER 16 (MExN): The Eastern Sumi Students’ Union (ESSU) has convened its 4th gen-eral meeting on November 21 at 10 am at Hotel Fira, Ko-hima. The meet that will be attended by all former offi-cials and gazetted officers from Aghunato area, has been called in regard of the forthcoming golden jubilee, a press release from the ESSU informed. The union president informs all concerned persons to attend the meeting.

Govt. informs on State Boiler Attendant examDIMAPUR, NOVEMBER 16 (MExN): The State Boiler Attendant Examination Board has tentatively fixed the first and second class Boiler Attendant Ex-aminations for the first week of February 2009 for viva voce and practicals. In this regard, all the intending candidates are to collect and submit the application forms on or before January 10, 2009, from the Secretary of the Board, Office of the Joint Labour Commission, Nagaland Kohima, during office hours.

ASOTN general meetingKOHIMA, NOVEMBER 16 (MExN): The Asso-ciation of the Subordinate Officials of Treasuries, Nagaland (ASOTN) will hold a general meeting on November 19 at 10:00 am at the Red Cross Building, Kohima, pertaining to urgent service matter. All exec-utive members and two representatives from district treasuries and one from sub-treasuries have been asked to attend the same positively. Further, the members have been asked to submit the membership fee for the session 2008-09, failing which a penalty will be imposed against the defaulters.

BJP members join NPFDIMAPUR, NOVEMBER 16 (MExN): Seven Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders from the state, district and ward level have joined the Nagaland Peo-ples’ Front, a press release from the Dimapur division NPF informed. The members include K Kahoto Chishi (vice president, BJMY), M Waban Ao (state secretary, BJYM), Shashi Nair (executive, BJYM), Ainul Haque (member), B Raju (member), Shyam (member) and Tinku (member), along with all the BJP supporters of Ward no. 6. Dimapur division NPF welcomed the lead-ers and expressed hope and confidence in them to help strengthen the regionalism in the state and Dimapur particularly.

Zakir HussainDimapur | November 16

ADDITIONAL CHIEF Secretary and Development Commissioner, Alemtem-shi Jamir, today appealed to media of Nagaland, par-ticularly the print media, to focus more on economic and related fields rather than em-phasising more on politics.

Maintaining that the State media should carry commentaries on economy in the local context and in regard to the present eco-nomic recession all over the world, he also advised the media persons to carry out ‘investigative journalism’ in the State, which accord-ing to him, was ‘lack in the State.’ He was speaking as the chief guest at the Na-tional Press Day, observed by the Dimapur Press Club (DPC) at the Tourist Lodge in Dimapur.

Stating that the media play a prominent role, Jamir said the media should be ra-tional and professional since the printed word was very powerful for the common man, which could be a bless-ing or a curse. He continued that the impact of the fourth estate was very much of the Government since a single negative line against the department and the officer could raise many questions about their positive function. He also admitted that ‘press’ was instrumental in control-ling violence in the State.

Talking about the pres-ence of competition among the newspapers, Jamir said

‘Carry out investigative journalism’

ObituaryChosen missionary, beloved wife and loving mother

Mrs. Vitoly Joseph has passed on for her heavenly home to her Heavenly Father. After a blessed life, she was called home on November 14, 2008 from New York, the United States, after a prolonged illness.

Loving wife and fellow missionary to Reverend Mati Joseph, pastor of the New Testament Church in Yonkers in New York, Late Vitoli Joseph lives on in the hearts and fond remembrances of her husband, three sons and two daughters and a grandson. She was born in December 25, 1953.

Brought up from Akuluto sub-division in Zunheboto, Late Vitoly Joseph married Reverend Mati Joseph on December 7, 1976. Called to farther mission by God, she and her husband left for America and have been residing in New York seven years now and since. Vitoli Joseph, inspiration and strength to all she touched, lives on in the hearts she has left behind, for a brief moment.

Loving husband, children and relativesPh. No. : 001-9144577678 (New York), 9436213476 (Dimapur)

Alemtemshi Jamir, Additional Chief Secretary and Development Commissioner, addressing the media persons. (Sitting L-R) Aküm Longchari, V Abu Metha, Liremo Lotha and VZ Angami at the National Press Day observed by the DPC at the Tourist Lodge in Dimapur on Sunday. (Morung Photo)

DPC observes National Press Day

that unity among newspa-pers was very important for the growth and develop-ment of the Naga society. He suggested the media per-sons to change and mould the thinking of the people in the positive direction. “Change directed in the right and wrong direction depends on you, especially in Nagaland,” he added.

Sharing his personal view, Jamir said the media in the State should accept positive criticism and should display responsibility and maturity. He further called upon the press clubs to highlight their

grievances and come forward with proposals to the govern-ment. Liremo Lotha, Super-intendent of Police, Dima-pur, said that the print media has occupied a very impor-tant position in Nagaland. He said that the media has been doing a commendable job as the fourth pillar of the State, with factual reports despite many hurdles.

V Abu Metha, Press Sec-retary to the Chief Minister of Nagaland, while comment-ing that the media has been regarded as the fourth estate of the Constitution, said De-mocracy cannot move ahead

without the fourth leg, so media has a great role and re-sponsibility towards Democ-racy. Therefore, he said, “We must realise how we can con-tribute to the society.” Stating that the media had worked under difficult circumstanc-es in the past in the State, he said the media, particularly the print media, has grown a lot and still have a lot of room for improvement. He called upon the media persons to be more professional.

Expressing his view, Metha said media persons with experience should be placed in decision making lev-

els of the State Government. However, he said that this comes with performance and professionalism. He pointed out that despite the multiple tasking of media person, they are under paid. He also high-lighted about the need of sup-port from public and private sector in the growth of media. Abu pointed out that despite the difficult circumstances that the media works under, it has proved its capability and that it has come off age. He further appealed to the media persons to rededicate them-selves to the cause of the soci-ety, people and democracy.

“The Naga Media is very small community so we need to work together with respon-sibility and in critical solidar-ity so that we can enable a vi-brant and relevant media,” said Aküm Longchari, Man-aging Director of The Mo-rung Express. He said that the media in Nagaland should be more than just a ‘watch dog’; it should contribute towards the making of the moral imagina-tion. Stating that Nagas need to be able to dream dreams, Aküm pointed out that the media should think and act outside the box, and that it should creatively empower the public to make conscious and informed decisions.

The Managing Director of The Morung Express chal-lenged the local media to be relevant, so that it could truly strengthen the values of de-mocracy and peace. Unless the Naga media asserted and strived to be a relevant com-municator, it would be reduced to a state of mere existence. It is time for the media community to reflect, he asserted.

DMC Chairperson, Khekaho Assumi and Temjen Jamir, Editor of Tir Yim Yim also spoke on the occasion. The programme was attended by VZ Anga-mi, Additional SP, Dima-pur, Nungsang, member of DMC. Earlier, the pro-gramme was chaired by Dilip Sharma, president of DPC and the vote of thanks was proposed by Alem Ja-mir, treasurer of DPC. Lipok Temsu, Naga Idol finalist 2007 presented special song during the programme.

Schoolchildren of Bethesda Higher Secondary School, Dimapur, perform a lively dance on Children’s Day, November 14.

DIMAPUR, NOVEMBER 16 (MExN): The foundation stone for the construction of Bailley Bridge at Pangsha, over the Yangmon River, was inaugurated on November 13 by EE Panteang, Advisor for DUDA, and Village Guard Nagaland, in the presence of more than 1000 people from the Phom and Konyak com-munity. The President of Phom People Council, Presi-dent of Konyak Union, Tobu Branch, ADC Tobu, EE PWD (R&B) Aboi, and other offi-cials and public leaders were also present on the occasion.

The people of the two dis-

tricts expressed happiness to the DAN government headed by Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio for fulfilling the desire of the people of the upper Konyak and Phom in particular, and the two districts in general. The people of the area looked forward to the task, taken up by the government, being com-pleted within the stipulated time, stated a release issued by S B Poangba Konyak, Presi-dent of the Konyak Union, Tobu Branch. They also men-tioned wish for maintenance of the road from Mon to Tuensang border and the Longleng-Tuen-sang road to Yangmon River.

Neiphiu Rio during the function said that once the road is operational, the whole upper Konyak and Phom would be benefited, as it would be the shortest route leading to the capital of Na-galand, and it would also im-prove the economic condition of the people, stated the re-lease. Rio further assured the people that the work would be completed during the present DAN government regime. Meanwhile, the public has requested the NPWD (R&B) Department to take up nec-essary steps for implementa-tion, the release added.

Bailley Bridge foundation stone laid

Seminar on child rightsKOHIMA, NOVEMBER 16 (MExN): The Nagaland Child Rights Committee will be organising a one-day seminar on child rights here at the Zonal Council Hall on November 20.

Governor K Sankara-narayanan will grace the occasion as the chief guest. Neingulo Krome, general secretary of Naga Hoho, will talk on ‘Child rights is human rights’, while Ela K, director of Prodigals’ Home, will speak on the topic ‘Re-alities of child trafficking’. The function will be chaired by Vilanuo Yhome.

CSAA informsKOHIMA, NOVEMBER 16 (MExN): The Chungtor Suro Akhiru Amulong has informed all its bonafide members residing in the vil-lage and outside that it will be collecting Rs.25 per stu-dent from class 2 onwards for its primary membership for the year 2008.

The Union Secretary General, Rongtsali L Sang-tam, has requested all the students to make the pay-ments on or before Decem-ber 20 positively.

Exhibition, sale at Tseminyu from Nov 24

DTO Dimapur collects revenue of Rs.29,31,350KOHIMA, NOVEMBER 16 (MExN): The enforcement staff under the charge of District Transport Officer, Dimapur, has collected rev-enue of Rs.29,31,350 by way of compounding fees during the last seven months (April to Oc-tober 2008). The compounding fees are mostly collected from the Inter State Check Gate at Golaghat road during intermittent surprise checks conducted from time to time, as the department does not have a permanent check gate, it was informed.

Transport commissioner, T Meren Paul, has stated that such revelation has been ne-cessitated in view of query and allegations re-ceived by the department from several public, casting doubts on whether the collection by the enforcement personnel of the Motor Vehicles department gets deposited.

DIMAPUR, NOVEMBER 16 (MExN): The Nagaland Handloom & Handicrafts De-velopment Corporation Ltd. Dimapur will be organising a district level exhibition-cum-sale at Tseminyu Town from November 24 to 28. The office of the Development Commis-sioner for Handloom, Minis-try of Textiles, Government of India, New Delhi, will spon-sor the event.

N Hushili Sema, Manag-ing Director, has informed

that all societies, SHGs, indi-viduals and interested partici-pants may apply to the Project Cell, NHHDC Ltd, Half Na-garjan, Dimapur, for partici-pation, on or before Novem-ber 20 during office hours. Participants coming from out-side the district and state will be provided travelling allow-ances, while incentives will be provided to the participants. For more information, one may contact at: 9436603059/ 9436602955/94360603173.

BHANDARI, NOVEM-BER 16 (DIPR): The Wokha DPDB meeting for the month of November was held at Bhandari town at Deputy Commissioner’s office on November 12. R Yanthan, Deputy Speaker of the Nagaland Legislative Assembly and chairman of the board, said the reason why the board’s November meeting was proposed to be held at Bhandari “is be-cause Bhandari Assembly Constituency-Bhandari sub-division is the most fer-tile land having sufficient favorable land for all-round development.”

At the meeting, a proposal made by parliamentary secre-tary W Kithan for upgrading

the ADC Bhandari to an in-dependent full-fledged ADC was widely deliberated and discussed by the members, including all four legislators of the district. The board ap-proved the agenda for recom-mendation to the government for action.

Further, the problem of the ‘man-elephant con-flict” in Wokha district was discussed. The legislators raised the issue of compen-sation for damaged crops, for which the wildlife con-servator in concern said the problem of shortage of funds in the department had been conveyed to the state gov-ernment several times but no consideration had been made. He therefore ap-

pealed to the chairman and state legislators present to consider more funds so that the victims would be com-pensated.

Adding on the agenda of drug-related matters in the district, chairman R Yan-than said that Merapani and Bhandari are the main traf-ficking entrance points in the district. To this, agricul-ture minister Dr. Chumben Murry and parliamentary secretary Y Patton urged the administration and po-lice in the district to control the increasing drug menace. The DC of Wokha, A Wopen Lotha, made appeals to de-partment officers and NGOs to cooperate and to assist in this matter.

DIMAPUR, NOVEMBER 16 (MExN): Tokhu Emong festival was celebrated at Old Riphyim, Wokha at the Tourist Complex with M Patton, Commissioner of Taxes & Excise, as the chief guest, a press release from the Old Riphyim Tokhu Emong Committee informed.

Speaking on the occasion, the chief guest dwelt on the importance of culture and cus-toms. He pointed out that efforts must be made to narrow the generation gap, and even as science and technology advances at a rap-id pace, traditions must still be preserved. There is every hope for everyone to succeed, but it demands one real effort with dedica-

tion towards one’s goal, he reminded.The chief guest also donated rupees one

lakh to the community. Parliamentary Secre-tary Y Patton who was also present at the festi-val emphasised on the importance of forgive-ness and the need to bury the hatchet of past differences and to reconcile. Other highlights of the Tokhu festival were variety show and a volleyball match. Meanwhile, the committee has expressed gratitude to M Patton and his family, Y Patton and his family, Chandemo Patton, Nzanbemo Jungio, captain Amos Ngullie, Old Riphyim Village Council, the participants and the general public.

Old Riphyim celebrates Tokhu Emong

Wokha DPDB meets in Bhandari

Monday17 November 2008 Dimapur 3The Morung Express LOCAL

STARTING LINE-UPYour daily Meetings, Appointments, Information and Reminder columnKLOU general meeting today

The general meeting of the Kohima Lotha Officers’ Union (KLOU) will be held on November 17 next at the conference hall of Hotel Japfü at 3:00 pm, with Minister for Agriculture Dr. Chumben Murry as the chief guest. C Mozhui, president of KLOU, has informed all members to attend the meeting positively.

NPF CEC meeting today

The meeting of the Central Executive Committee (CEC) of the NPF on the eve of the general convention will be held on November 17 at 4:00 pm at its central office, Kohima. The meet-ing will peruse and approve the report of the Election Board before submission to the general convention. All members are requested to attend the meeting without fail.

DoVisit

UsAt

The Special Handloom ExpoAt Local Ground Zunheboto Town

For 15 Days W.E.F 12th November 2008.Enjoy The Handloom Colours Of North East.Organised By: Nagaland Handloom& Handicraft Development Corporation Ltd.

Kuda Village, Dimapur, Nagaland.Sponsored By: Office Of The Development Commissioner For Handloom, Govt. Of India, Ministry Of Textiles, New Delhi.

Our Correspondent

Kohima | November 16

THE NEED to intensify the cover-age on women issues in the state has been strongly felt during the obser-vance of National Press Day here under the theme ‘Women & Media’ jointly organised by the Kohima Press Club (KPC) and Directorate of Information & Public Relations.

Sentiyanger Imchen, Com-missioner and Secretary, IPR and Horticulture, in his address hoped that the press fraternity would play an important role in highlighting women issues and also other issues of public importance with seri-ousness. He also requested media persons to maintain the highest standard of reporting and focus on being “fair and without bias.”

He maintained that media oc-cupied a very important space in society, adding that its power has increased tremendously. Also stat-ing that the role of media is to pro-vide information, entertainment and education, Imchen further re-quested media persons to give more attention towards educating public opinion.

The Commissioner and Secre-tary also challenged media persons to act as a catalyst for transforma-

More focus on women issues stressedNational Press Day observed in Kohima

Sentiyanger Imchen, Commissioner and Secretary, IPR and Horticulture along with Rosemary Dzuvichu and others at the National Press Day observed in Kohima on Sunday.tion of society towards progress and overall development. Appreciating Nagaland Page for rendering a spe-cial feature on women every Friday,

Rosemary Dzuvichu, senior lec-turer at the department of English, Nagaland University, requested other local media houses to adopt

similar approach by carrying out at least one feature article on women issues in a week. She was confident that such move would bring great

change and bear a “great contribu-tion” from media houses.

She also requested the DIPR to give adequate coverage on the government’s programmes and schemes relating to women so that women in rural areas would be able to access necessary information and gain maximum benefit from there. Rosemary also asked media persons to lay special emphasis on health and safety sector of women, besides other issues like child mar-riage, empowerment of women, increasing rate of molestation of children, rising rate of HIV/AIDS, domestic violence, women in deci-sion making, etc.

Further stressing on the need to provide basic information on trainings, loans and other business ventures, Rosemary added that such coverage would go a long way in terms of economic empower-ment of women. Earlier, the func-tion was chaired by KPC general secretary, Narain B Sagar, while Menguseu Suokhrie presented a special song. The programme concluded with vote of thanks by Limawati, Deputy Director of IPR. Meanwhile, the KPC has expressed gratitude to Chief Min-ister Neiphiu Rio for donating Rs.50,000 towards the KPC fund.

DIMAPUR, NOVEMBER 16 (MExN): On Children’s Day, Maj Gen A K Choudhary, SM, VSM, IGAR (South) visit-ed Churachandpur Town and attended the function orga-nized at Lalpuiphluaii Foun-dation School (LFS) as chief guest. He was accompanied by Colonel Sandeep Kala, Of-ficiating Commander, HQ 27 Sector Assam Rifles.

LFS students presented a number of cultural items including songs and dance, and prayers were said by stu-

dents and teaching staff. The IG in his address stressed upon quality education, sportsmanship, peace and harmony amongst the vari-ous people in society. He said that today’s children are the future of the nation and as it is very important to make a strong nation, we must mould there youth into strong and bright pillars of the nation. He also appreciated the cul-tural performances given by the school children. Later the chief guest distributed prizes

to the staff and students and wished them for a bright and successful future.

The IG gave monitory assistance to COMFA for Muatam relief and also pro-vided sports and stationary items to the school to improve facilities in the school cam-pus. Concluding the celebra-tions, Principal of the school T Vunglallian thanked the General for sparing his valu-able time and gracing the oc-casion by coming all the way from Imphal.

LFS celebrates Children’s day with IGAR

DIMAPUR, NOVEMBER 16 (MExN): The 7th Annual Competition-cum-Parents’ Day 2008 of Herbert Spencer School at Walford, Dimapur, was held at the school prem-ises with Nipusilie Angami, Additional Director and HOD, Directorate of School Education, Kohima, as the chief guest on November 14, 2008.Explaining the need for continuous comprehen-sive evaluation for students’

welfare, Nipusilie urged the school authorities to main-tain such a pattern that would greatly assist in improving the results of students. He expressed appreciation to the authorities for trying to build such a school, and said that “if the school can retain good result, then it is very possible that the school will go a long way.” Nipusilie further added that both the parents and stu-dents’ active involvement is

important towards this end. Besides the vote of thanks by the headmaster, and invoca-tion prayer by Rev. Dr. S. Gangte, the audience was en-tertained by competitions and a dance carnival. Later, prizes were distributed to students. It is pertinent to note that the school has been running for the past seven years now un-der the administrator, K M. Kom. Currently, the school has more than 200 students.

From Page 1A family source close to

the NPF secretary general also disclosed that the latter was especially hurt when he was accused by “certain sec-tions” within the NPF for not helping the party candidate in 29 Jangpetkong A/C—the seat which was won by for-mer Congress legislator party leader I. Imkong during the 2008 election. It was further disclosed that having served for a long time in a senior and important position within the NPF and before that the NPC, the secretary general was ‘unhappy’ with certain decisions including bypass-

ing him for a Rajya Sabha berth. Mr Chubatemjen is reported to have “reiterated” within the party forum that as a senior party leader he had “a rightful claim” to be the party nominee to the Rajya Sabha, which was denied to him. To recall, it may be mentioned that Chubatemjen was the then secretary general of the NPC when the regional par-ty was later renamed into the present NPF in the year 2002 just ahead of the Assembly Elections in 2003, which saw the defeat of the SC Jamir led Congress government.

Meanwhile, notwith-standing the “differences”

within the party, sources disclosed that the outgo-ing secretary general also wanted to pass on the baton to other “suitable” persons who could address the “con-temporary expectations and requirements” and that he was leaving without any re-sentment against anybody. Party sources informed that the outgoing secretary gen-eral will be attending the party convention and that he will take a final bow from the political center stage on November 18 at Kohima.

(The writer is former Editor of The Morung Express and pres-

ently the Chief of Bureau)

NPF looks for Continuity & Change

Thannganing Hungyo

Shillong | November 16

MORRIS, FORD and Willys had a field day as they cruised through Shillong’s asphalt for the vintage and clas-sic car rally pieced together by the North East Antique Wheels, recreating a delecta-ble scenario of times past. 30 vehicles participated in the crowd-puller, among them a 1942 Harley Davidson motorcycle, a Ford T-model which was used in the movie ‘Gandhi’ and two jeeps that survived World War II. Ko-hima was to be represented by former chief secretary Talitemjen Ao’s wartime Dodge, but disappointed afi-cionados by not turning up.

Sporting a blue cravat with a vintage car textured on it, the man behind the show, Ashok Lyngdoh, said today’s demon-stration was a formula for en-couraging vintage car owners to maintain their street beau-ties instead of taking them

Antique wheels roll out in Shillong

Proud owners of a Ford T-model dress up in Victorian era fashion as they put on show their timeless beauty. (Right) A 1200 cc Harley Davidson motorcycle, manufactured in 1942, is parked for display during the North East Antique Wheels rally in Shillong on November 16.

to the scrap heap. “The rally gives them a reason to look af-ter their cars,” he said.

The man of the moment, though, was 76-year-old Har-ish Das who drove his Morris Minor all the way from Tez-pur to enter the event. “It feels

great, it feels nice,” he said with a twinkle in his eye.

20-something year old R. Das, who inherited his grand-father’s Jaguar Mark IV only re-cently, confided that he has not had the time to flaunt his prized possession to his friends. The

bodywork has not been com-pletely redone, he said.

Jeremy Wahlang, a well-known figure in the music circuit, was more than im-pressed by today’s rally. He revved up his childhood memory of toying with the

Harley (back then with a side car), which was usually parked near Anjali Cinema Hall. Another auto buff, Raj Nahar, pleaded that given a chance he would love to be behind the wheels of a vintage car, if only for a test ride.

The Old and the Beautiful

From page 1“Not that we do everything right,

we do have our failings but we face problems” she said, referring to the insufferable pressure, diktat and worst, intimidation from certain sec-tions of the society who have yet to “grasp” the media’s role in a given so-ciety. “There are many young people who are joining the media and com-ing up with better ideas and better thoughts,” she said but the pressure remains in dealing with those not versed are ill-informed about the tacit role of the media. “The only thing we can do is use our ‘pie’ constructively and know how to use it”. Nakhro ex-pressed hope, that in a course of time, mindsets will change.

The Darker Page of the Story It is no secret that a considerable

section of the masses and many an organization in Nagaland impose diktats over what the media ought to do, be doing or express. While most readerships – including even the Naga “political groups” – are gradu-ally realizing that the social media is independent, self-regulating demo-cratic institution and beyond all ter-tiary affiliations, certain sections are inclined to “bully” the media into expressing a given opinion. A senior journalist, refusing to be named, echoed the one plain sentence of lam-entation all journalists in Nagaland agree on: “What mind do you expect

from certain people who demand what page or which space their press statement should go?”

In fact, the common practice and expectation for most readerships in Nagaland sometimes borders on sheer ridiculousness. For instance, the current trend where some Naga “political groups” members even go to the extent of dictating terms what point of opinion, sentence, term or word (not to mention which page to be published or size of space given) should be published. Threats and in-timidations against the media from one too many sections, even civil so-ciety organizations like certain stu-dents’ bodies, are an everyday affair. This is the reality under which the media in Nagaland works.

Senior reporter and photojour-nalist Pradeep Pareek said this trend of intimidating newspapers by cer-tain sections in carrying opinion has ebbed to some extend. But consider-ing the general culture the “media-illiterate” practice when dealing with the media, the institution is not inde-pendent, Pareek said. He also agreed on the general dictum concerning the Nagaland media: “The media in Na-galand is not independent. No, it is not independent,” echoed Pareek, a veteran of more than 20 years in the profession. He however, said some changes can be seen that the masses and civil society, amongst others are slowing realizing that the media is

not a “notice board”. He contextual-ized his opinion on the pre-ceasefire period and post-ceasefire: “The situ-ation was different during the pre-ceasefire period and situation was difficult. But in the post-ceasefire period things are changing to some level. Yes, there are many who have no idea at all what the newspapers or journalists are all about. Our job is to write the truth and many people can-not digest the truth”.

Pareek further explained that the people should learn to be more “tolerant”. He was referring to the culture in Nagaland that most de-mand “the truth” but “when you write about it, about corruption and whatnot, they intimidate you and they cannot digest the truth”. Refer-ring to the regular intimidation and “language” used by certain “media-illiterate” sections, Pareek pointed to the factor of fear that has resulted in the local “not writing about cor-ruption, extortions, killings etc”. They cannot dictate terms, he said, and they must come to realize that this is this role of the media.

“They cannot treat newspapers like notice boards. Immature readers cannot digest the truth,” he said. The senior journalist expressed hope that the scenario will change in time with the entry of more newspapers, tele-vision networks and proliferation of education not to mention of the grow-ing number of educated, cultured,

intelligent and young professionals into journalism in the state.

President of Dimapur Press Club Dilip Sharma, while acknowledging certain positive changes, also echoed similar sentiment that the Nagaland media is in need of mature reader-ship. People are slowing realizing the importance of the media, he said, and it is serving the people without bias. “They are slowly realizing and being aware that the media and journal-ist shape the consciousness and the society,” Sharma said. However, he lamented, the aspect of intimidation has to be done away with and that “in-vestigative stores” have to be placed on impetus. Highlighting a number of reasons relative to the aspect of threat from certain sections, not only civil society and politicians, he said the electronic media is “far ahead of us”. And the aspect of intimidation and the inability of the local media managements to self-regulate, be assertive and independent, is add-ing to the diseases already ailing the Naga society. “This is preventing our growth,” he explained.

Dilip also took snigger at what he called the “press release culture” practiced in Nagaland. “We have heavy office work and the press re-lease culture. It is not practiced any-where in India; no culture of press release; but we are obsessed with press releases so no investigative stories,” he quipped.

Nagaland Media: Throes of Rebirth

From page 1“I believe the church people, they have

to support a lot and even the government and every concerned members of the soci-ety as well.” As of now she does not exactly know how she will contribute to the cause of AIDS or what plans the NSACS has to use her as the brand ambassador. “As of now I am not too sure, I have talked with those people, NSACS people and let’s see how it goes,” she said. It may be noted that Toshinaro is the third winner and the first female to win the Naga Idol contest, the earlier ones being Moanungsang and Rok-oviotuo.

Toshinaro is the daughter of T Imnak Imchen and Y Temsula Longchar and is from Lirmen village under Mokokchung district. She is presently pursuing her mas-ters in English from Nagaland University.

Naga Idol for greater church role in AIDS fight ‘Everything happened so fast’ for

the NSACS Naga Idol 3.08 that she be-lieves to be is still in a dream, ‘on Cloud No 9’. However, despite her busy sched-ule and preparation to head back to Ko-hima, her home town, Toshinaro, took off some time from her busy schedule and interacted with The Morung Express.

Born into a family of five, Toshinaro has a deep and ‘natural’ husky voice which has been a sort of amusement for her friends who tease her if she is “Bryan Adam’s sister”. An ardent talker with a cheery conti-nence, she says with great glee, “I am more of a talker…than a writer.”

It wasn’t with much seriousness that she joked with her friends that she was to audition for the Naga Idol, and never thought that she

would come this far. Her trademark husky voice finally paid off. Now she is richer by one Lakh rupees and a brand new Maruti Alto and is the brand ambassador of Nagaland State Aids Control Society.

Graduated from Sazolie College in Jotsoma Kohima, Toshinaro is presently doing her MA in English, NU. She took up singing from a very young age and sang in ‘groups’ and solos in church services. She can play “guitar basics” and also “drums”.

A strong believer in Christ, Toshinaro however says she is the ‘worst’ of sinners, yet expressed strong belief that God takes care of her in every step and that God is there with her in every way. She thanks God for her success, her

friends and especially her family members who have been very sup-portive right from the beginning.

Interestingly, Toshinaro has no formal training in music and what she can sing is adaptations of west-ern singers like Amy Grant, Jewel and others. She is more into gospel music and for her, lyrics catches her attention more in her selection for music. Music for her has a deeper meaning and sees music as a strong device which can heal and repair.

Of the days ahead as a ‘Naga Idol’ winner, Toshinaro foresees some criticism from society and also opportunities in her life; but she will take criticism in a ‘con-structive way’. “I see it as a big challenge for me,” she maintains.

Herbert Spencer School celebrates Parents’ Day

Information for heads of departmentsDIMAPUR, NOVEMBER 16 (MExN): The office of the Sr. Dy. Accountant General (A&E) informs all heads of de-partments, government of Nagaland, that the annual GPF statements for the year 2007-08 will be issued from this office as per the following schedules. All heads of depart-ments have been requested to deploy their respective nodal officers, preferably a gazetted officer, along with a letter of authenticity under the seal and signature of the head of de-partment to collect the same on the assigned dates: Novem-ber 17 (veterinary, jail, misc.), November 18 (CPF, Agri., IND, STY), November 19 (forest and medical), November 20 (police, GA) and November 21 (CW, education).

CMYK

CMYK

Monday17 November 2008 4 Dimapur The Morung Express

DAILY CROSS WORDLEISURE

DOWN

Answers to CROSSWORD #1153

Across: 3. Equipment, 8. Heat, 9. Insulate, 10. Peruse, 13. Lucky, 14. Octagon, 15. Hit, 16. Turmoil, 17. Theme, 21. Aghast, 22. Jodhpurs, 23. Blur, 24. Reference.

Down: 1. Chipolata, 2. Capricorn, 4. Quiet, 5. Inspect, 6. Milk, 7. NATO, 11. Agree-able, 12 Inventory, 14. Oil, 15. Hirsule, 18. Basic, 19. Core 20. Shoe.

CROSSWORD # 1154The Morung Express number gameS U D O K U

Sudoku # 1137

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

Yesterdays answer Sudoku #1136

W O R D S E A R C H

BUSINESS

CURRENCY EXCHANGECURRENCY NOTES BUY(Rs) SELL(Rs)US Dollars 48.03 50.65Sterling Pound 71.43 75.50Hong Kong Dollar 5.34 7.34Japanese Yen /1000 481.99 534.24Malaysian Ringtt 12.17 15.12Singapore Dollar 29.83 34.98Thai Bhat / 100 134.40 145.90U.A.E. Dirhams 12.31 14.43Euro 61.37 64.71

For details contact: Urban Station, Near NSC Petrol Pump, 6th Mile Dimapur. Ph No : 240994

DIMAPUR STD CODE: 03862Civil Hospital: 232224; Emergency- 229529, 229474Metro Hospital: 227930, 231081Faith Hospital: 233044, 228846Shamrock Hospital 228254Zion Hospital: 231864, 230889Fire Service: 232201Police Control Room 228400Police Traffic Control 232106East Police Station 227607, 228400West Police Station 232181CIHSR (Referral Hospital) 242555/ 242531

KOHIMA STD CODE: 0370Police Control Room: 2244279North Police Station: 2244923South Police Station: 2242897Fire Brigade: 2222952Naga Hospital: 2222916Oking Hospital: 2243339Bethel Nursing Home: 2224202

ACROSS

1 2 3 4 5 6

7 8

9 10 11

12 13 14

15 16 17 18

19 20

21 22

23 24

BECAUSEBIRTHDAYCOLDCOUGHCOUGHEARACHEFEVERHEADACHEHOMELASTNOVEMBEROCTOBER

POORREADYSECONDSEPTEMBERSICKSORESTAYSTOMACHACHETHIRDTHROATTOOTHACHEWHERE

CHEVROLET CARS PRICE LIST NOVEMBER’ 2008

CAR MODEL PRICESPARK 1.0 BASE 268,648SPARK 1.0 PS 289,992SPARK 1.0 LS 304,641SPARK 1.0 LT 334,123U-VA 1.2 BASE 401,753U-VA 1.2 LS 444,299U-VA 1.2 LT 484,090SRV 1.6 OPT. PACK 790,100AVEO 1.4 BASE 606,461AVEO 1.4 LTD EDI 661,631AVEO 1.4 LT OPT.PACK 754,930TAVERA 2.5 LT 9S BS3 877,748TAVERA 2.5 SSD1 7S (C) BS3 993,249OPTRA ROYAL 1.6 LT (PETROL) 967,686OPTRA MAGNUM 2.0 LT ACC (DIESEL) 1,074,547CAPTIVA 2.0 LT VCDI 1,812,688

1. Ludicrous (8)5. Affinity (4)7. Weaving machine (4) 8. Without mercy (8)9. Actress, --- Mills (6) 12. Make merry (7)15. ,Old saying (7)19. Turn pale (6) .21. Impressive (8)22. Straw - - -’ Sam Peck in path film (4)23. Brewery cart (4)24. Clemency (8)

1. Grimy (6)2. Desert ruminant (5)3. Tim ~ - -’ Rocky Horror Show .actor (5)4. Diminutive (6)5. ShortjacJcet(6)6. Amount of medicine (6) 10. John Lennon’s wife, - -0110 (4)11. Irish Gaelic (4)12. Bone (3)13. Actress, - - - Gascome (4) 14. Persia (4)15. Self-confident (6)16. Conceit (6). 17. Emanating from the centre (6)18. SCotch (6)19. Commence (5)20. Tennis star, - - - Agassi (5)

E D K Q P E E A U U B M K X T

S T A Y I X W P X K Z L D C X

Y D A E R E B M E T P E S A A

D S Q O I E K X H R N T E T E

K R O T C A Q R X G O O C T P

X P I A Y B O B O M V O O S U

H M U H O A I C A F E T N A D

T S B S T R T C Y U M H D L E

E O M K T O H O M E B A O M R

O R S H B A V F B J E C W E X

V E D E C O U G H S R H V K P

S A R H E A D A C H E E T A H

Y I E A R A C H E R F J E M F

F R C I U F F O E T J J U L M

G B W K T G C L Y N F E E Z Q

WASHINGTON, NOVEM-BER 16 (AFP): World lead-ers agreed an action plan to restore global growth and prevent future financial up-heaval at a crisis summit here, promising spending plans, a trade deal and reforms. A final statement from the leaders af-ter one of the biggest interna-tional economic gatherings in years pledged responses on a number of fronts, with another meeting scheduled for April to flesh out policies.

Government spending plans are to be used to reverse immediate economic de-cline, a global trade deal is to be promoted to guard against protectionism, and financial regulation and world finan-cial institutions are to be re-formed. "We are determined to enhance our cooperation and work together to restore global growth and achieve needed re-forms in the world's financial systems," the G20 said after the crisis summit here. The meet-ing of the Group of 20 nations, which represent 85 percent of the world economy, was con-vened by outgoing US Presi-dent George W. Bush to tackle the financial crisis that is seen as the worst since the 1930s.

While weeks ago some had talked expansively of redrawing the financial sys-tem in a "Bretton Woods II" overhaul in Washington, the final communique amount-ed to a commitment to keep working on reforms. The G20 leaders tasked their finance ministers with drawing up a series of recommendations by March 31 to be brought be-fore a new summit in April, at a location to be announced shortly. Six areas will be spe-cifically targeted: regulating those parts of the financial markets that have exacerbat-ed the crisis, boosting trans-parency and reforming "fat cat" compensation practices.

The ministers, from the industrialized and emerging world, must also evaluate glob-al accounting norms and the fi-nancing needs of international financial institutions. Finally, they must draw up a list of fi-nancial institutions whose col-lapse would imperil the global financial system. Bush said the leaders had agreed that both the International Mon-etary Fund and World Bank, the two main international fi-nancial institutions created in 1944 in Bretton Woods, should be modernized.

"We should reform the international financial insti-tutions. Again, these institu-tions have been very impor-tant – the World Bank, IMF – but they were based on an economic order of 1944," he told a press conference. Brit-ish Prime Minister Gordon Brown told reporters "it is ab-solutely clear that we are try-ing to build new institutions for the future." The final com-munique was also significant in what it did not include. There was no mention of the creation of a global financial market enforcer as demanded by some European and emerg-ing countries but opposed by the US.

"Regulation is first and foremost the responsibil-ity of national regulators who constitute the first line of defense against market in-stability," the G20 statement stated. There was no refer-ence to coordinated stimulus packages from governments either, an idea promoted by Britain. The final agreement said leaders would use "fiscal measures to stimulate domes-tic demand to rapid effect." "I believe that you will see in the next few weeks significant further announcements (of tax and spending plans) by a number of countries," Brown said at a press conference.

G-20 agrees to stimulate economies, provide liquidity

Govt to aggressively use monetary, fiscal policies: PM

WORLD LEADERS AGREE action plan for global growth

ON BOARD PM’s Special Aircraft, November 16 (PTI): Confident that inflation will come down further, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today gave firm indications that monetary and fiscal poli-cies would be used aggressive-ly in relation to interest rates.

About the prices of pe-troleum products, the Prime Minister gave no firm com-mitment that they would be reduced in the light of the fall of international crude prices from a peak of USD 147 to about USD 56, but said “all

options” were open on the question of reducing fuel prices. “As far as the interest rates are concerned that is the prerogative of the RBI. It will not not be proper for me to comment. But as I said it is an evolving situation.

“If the inflation rate comes down and we feel confident that inflation will not not be a problem, there is scope for ma-noeuvrability both in more ag-gressive use of monetary policy and more aggressive use of fis-cal policy,” he told journalists accompanying him in his spe-

cial plane on the way back from Washington where he attended a summit of G-20 leaders on the current global financial crisis.

The Prime Minister was replying to a question on the possibility of reducing in-terest rates in the context of easing liquidity situation to tackle the economic crisis. Singh said as far as India was concerned a stimulus pack-age was already on and steps have been taken for ensuring increased liquidity. “If more is needed we will do more,” he added.

Russian President Dmit-ry Medvedev said the summit "went positively" while Bra-zilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva hailed a new dimension to the "geo-polit-ical structure." The meeting of G20 countries, rather than the G7 group of rich countries favored in the past, reflects the rise of emerging econo-mies and their increasingly important role in the world

economy. "There is no logic to making any political and eco-nomic decisions without the G20 members – developing countries must be part of the solution to the global financial crisis," said Lula. Despite the consensus for the broad ideas of the communique, the sum-mit was severely hamstrung by the absence of the man of the moment: US president-elect Barack Obama.

The Democrat sent former secretary of state Madeleine Albright and ex-Republican lawmaker Jim Leach to meet with members of visiting delegations on his behalf. Bush, who bid an em-phatic "goodbye" at the end of his press conference, said he had told fellow leaders that the United States would en-joy a "seamless" transition to Obama's new team. The sum-

mit, which involved the ma-jor industrialized powers as well as emerging giants Bra-zil, China, India and Russia, also concluded with a pledge to revive World Trade Orga-nization talks begun in 2001 on a new global deal. The last attempt to clinch a deal in the Doha Round of talks, intend-ed to boost global commerce by lowering trade barriers, fell apart in July in Geneva.

President George W. Bush makes remarks at the Summit on Financial Markets and the World Economy in Washington, on November 15. (AP Photo)

WASHINGTON, NO-VEMBER 16 (PTI): Facing the gravest economic crisis in decades, world leaders have agreed to initiate "strong and significant actions" to stimu-late economies, bring trans-parency in financial system, offer liquidity and reform financial institutions to beat the looming recession.

At a G-20 summit con-vened by US President George

W Bush here yesterday, the leaders, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, warned that "economic mo-mentum is slowing substan-tially in major economies and the global outlook has weak-ened".The meeting witnessed a shift in balance of power in which key emerging econo-mies like India and China demanded a greater say. "We need to ensure that any new

architecture we design is genuinely multilateral with adequate representation from countries reflecting changes in economic realities," Singh said addressing the summit. Singh asked world leaders to refrain from protectionism and pave way for multilateral regulato-ry supervision to avert the re-currence of crisis that has led to the world economy to the recession. Virtually respond-

ing to Singh's demand against protectionism, Bush said, "We are committed to the people in the developing world... We have deep desire to reduce trade deficit." "... That attitude (protectionism) was rejected, thankfully. And as a matter of fact, not only rejected, there is a determined effort to see if we can't complete the modalities for Doha by the end of De-cember," Bush said.

Students discuss after appearing for a Common Admission Test (CAT) examination at a center in Ahmadabad on November 16. More than 275,000 students took the qualifying test to get into the country's top seven business schools in India Sunday. (AP Photo)

Gujarat state Chief Minister Narendra Modi, right, talks to Founder World Economic Forum Klaus Schwab after a session at the India Economic Summit in New Delhi on November 16. (AP Photo)

Asia looks to summit loan pledge to help exportersBEIJING, NOVEMBER 16 (AP): Struggling Asian econo-mies came away from a Wash-ington meeting on the global economic crisis with a prom-ise of more access to financing from international organiza-tions that analysts said Sun-day should help credit-starved exporters and calm markets from South Korea to India.

Leaders of major industri-alized and developing nations meeting Saturday also pledged to give developing countries a bigger role in global financial bodies - a move long sought by China. Beijing welcomed the step but gave no indication whether it might respond by heeding appeals to use its $2 trillion in reserves to help ex-pand a global bailout fund.

The Group of 20 leaders promised to expand access for developing countries to financing through the Inter-national Monetary Fund and other bodies, though they gave no figures on the possible size of lending or other details. "We have seen evidence of trade fi-nancing, as well as financing more generally for emerging markets, deteriorate," said Michael Buchanan, chief Asia economist for Goldman Sachs. "If the G-20 and IMF and donor countries can pro-vide financing, that will help to alleviate that. That will be very significant." Exporters throughout Asia that depend on credit to pay for raw mate-rials and to finance shipments say business has plunged as access to lending dries up.

Access to IMF loans could help governments in South Korea, India, Indonesia and other economies where inves-tor anxiety about a possible scarcity of foreign currency has driven down exchange rates, said Citigroup econo-mist Yiping Huang. South Korea's won has fallen by 33 percent against the U.S. dollar this year as investors pulled capital out of the country.

With a commitment to make money available, "in the short term we won't see such drastic changes in the curren-cy," Huang said.

China welcomed the meet-ing as a step toward changes in international financial bodies. "It will help to enhance the in-ternational community's con-fidence to deal with the finan-cial crisis and concerns about development questions," For-eign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in a statement.

There was no mention of a possible Chinese contribu-tion to an IMF bailout fund, which prime ministers Gor-don Brown of Britain and Taro Aso of Japan have both called for. Aso has pledged $100 bil-lion for the fund.

Chinese officials say the most important step they can take for global growth is to keep China's own economy stable. "China's economic power is growing, so China could contribute and help ease the financial crisis," said Wu Jinglian, a prominent Chi-nese economist and Cabinet adviser. "But the first priority is to keep our own economy growing. That will benefit ev-ery country in the world."

In Japan, the country's big-gest business group called on the government to take action on a stimulus plan announced last month. "The government must swiftly implement this, and help the economy recov-ery as soon as possible," the Ja-pan Business Federation said in a statement.

For South Korea, the meeting gave President Lee Myung-bak a chance to calm unease at home by being seen working alongside other lead-ers after a year of turmoil that has fed feelings of isolation among South Koreans, said Cheong In-kyo, a trade spe-cialist at Seoul's Inha Univer-sity. "The G-20 meeting this time might wipe out these sen-timents," Cheong said.

Dimapur 5Monday17 November 2008The Morung Express REGIONAL

ITANAGAR, NOVEM-BER 16 (THE TELE-GRAPH): Assam and Ar-unachal Pradesh are at loggerheads over an order from the Lakhimpur district administration to demol-ish a police check post in a disputed area. Arunachal Pradesh claims the police check post at Gumto falls under Doimukh circle of Papum Pare district. Sources in Papum Pare deputy com-missioner’s office yesterday said tension was simmering in the area after deputy com-missioner of Lakhimpur,

Jayant Narlekar, deputed a battalion of CRPF and As-sam Police to the Gumto check post around 5.30pm on Thursday.

The Arunachal Pradesh authorities were alerted, when the contingent, along with Lakhimpur assistant superintendent of police M. Gayen, and divisional for-est officer of Lakhimpur, V. Rahman, was crossing the Birup river at Gumto. A team from Doimukh police station immediately rushed to Gumto to take stock of the situation and so did Papum

Pare deputy commissioner Bidol Tayeng. He asked the Lakhimpur district admin-istration to withdraw the de-molition order and chalk out a solution.

Narlekar said he had ordered the demolition of the Gumto outpost as it was illegally constructed inside Assam’s boundary on No-vember 7. “I inspected the Gumto area and found the Arunachal Pradesh author-ities illegally constructing a police check post inside Assam’s territory. I wrote a letter and personally asked

the Papum Pare deputy commissioner, Bidol Tay-eng, on November 7, to stop the construction.

“The Papum Pare district administration failed to take any action. So we decided to order the demolition of the Gumto police check post. They violated the Supreme Court’s verdict, which makes it mandatory to demolish any construction illegally done inside any other state’s territory. Assam maintained status quo but Arunachal Pradesh has failed to do so. We, therefore, have no option

but to demolish the Gumto police check post,” he said.

Tayeng, in reply to Narlekar’s letter, said: “The issue of constitutional boundary or status quo that you have raised in your let-ter is biased and not in total-ity of the inter-state Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border in Papum Pare and Lakhimpur districts.” Tayeng added that the Papum Pare administra-tion would not succumb to any dictation or threat is-sued by Lakhimpur. He said his Lakhimpur counterpart should “not indulge in any

kind of misadventure at the otherwise peaceful Gumto (Arunachal Pradesh)-Moin-ajuli (Assam) area.”

“If you threaten or use your police force to demolish any structure within the Ar-unachal Pradesh territory, we will have to retaliate. None but you will be held respon-sible for provoking the situa-tion,” Tayeng added. Assam further alleged that some Arunachal Pradesh villagers had illegally encroached on a vast tract of land inside Ran-ga reserve forest in Lakhim-pur district.

Demolition fuels border row Centre reaffi rms support for peace in NEAGARTALA, NOVEMBER 16 (UNI): The Centre has assured insurgency-infested states of Northeast to supplement support by providing security for vulner-able institutions and installations, strong surveillance on Bangladesh, Myanmar, China and Bhutan borders, including fencing of borders and intelligence sharing. The latest report of Union Home Ministry revealed that 40 Indian Reserve Battalions (IRB), including eight each for Tripura and Assam and seven for Ma-nipur, were sanctioned for the region in 2007-08 fiscal to deal with militancy while vigilance on international borders had also been augmented following recent incidents in Tripura and Assam.

The report expressed concern over security issues in Assam and Manipur and stated that the operation against ULFA in Assam was suspended in 2006 fol-lowed by peace negotiation initiative but suddenly they increased the attacks on civilians with the help of international terrorists. The violence attributable to some other insurgent outfits had also been observed in North Cachar Hill and Karbi Anglong districts, which affected the surface transport movement to-wards Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur and south Assam to a large extent, the report underlined.

BJP for Security Council for North EastGACHHIRAMPARA, NOVEMBER 16 (PTI): Is-sues like insurgency and infiltration from Myanmar and Bangladesh should be dealt with by a security council for the North East on the lines of the National Security Council, the BJP said. "We have demanded the formation of a North East Security Council to deal with security related issues of the region on a pattern similar to the National Security Council," BJP presi-dent Rajnath Singh said.

Stating that insurgency and infiltration had to be dealt with firmly, Singh said, a priority of the NDA, if elected, would be fencing of all borders with Myan-mar and Bangladesh as in the west on the Indo-Pak border. He was campaigning among Reangs from Mi-zoram sheltered here, for the forthcoming Mizoram assembly polls. Rajnath said, "It is a matter of deep sorrow that you are now refugees in your own land. We assure you that we will fulfill your demand for a tribal council for Reangs."

He attacked the Mizo National Front led by Zoramthanga and Congress led by Lalthanhawla, saying that these parties had ruled Mizoram for de-cades and were corrupt. Denying that the BJP was communal, he pointed out that party vice-president G S Goyal was Christian and many leaders were not Hindu. "Some political quarters are labelling the BJP as communal, but our party is the only party in the country which is non-communal and secular in nature."

About 35000 Reangs who had migrated to Tripu-ra following ethnic clashes with Mizos since 1997 were now sheltered in six camps in Kanchanpur subdivision of North Tripura district. The Election Commission has allowed the Reangs to exercise their franchise through postal ballots.

Militants shot dead IMPHAL, NOVEMBER 16 (UNI): Two suspected militants were shot dead in an encounter by Imphal West District Police Commandos near Manipur Uni-versity campus here last night. Police said an encoun-ter took place near the University resulting in the death of two people. One .38 pistol with a live round, one US made carbine, two magazines and three rounds of ammunition were recovered. The bodies were sent to RIMS Hospital for identification and post-mortem, said the police.

Tripura alerts WB on possible terrorist attacksAGARTALA, NOVEMBER 16 (UNI): The Tripu-ra police have alerted its West Bengal counterparts on possible terrorist attacks in a few locations of the state, official sources here today said. According to report, Inspector General of Police (Intelligence) B K Debbarma was informed by the BSF yesterday that a group of Bangladesh-based terrorists had been planning to strike in some important locations of West Bengal. Debbarma had also provided inputs on movements of anti-Indian forces in Bangladesh along with some other confessional statements of suspected international terrorist links.

Newmai News NetworkImphal | November 16

A JOURNEY along the Na-tional Highway (NH) 39 leading to Manipur will be safer only when the Manipur chief minister of Manipur O. Ibobi Singh assurance for a tighter security measures including intensification of patrolling of security forces personnel along the national highway is materialized.

Ibobi said that the state government is pressing New Delhi to take the security of the highways leading to Ma-nipur. The chief minister in a meeting recently held with the All Manipur Inter-State Bus Association had assured to intensify the patrolling of security forces personnel along the NH-39.

According to reports, Ibobi Singh, during a meet-ing with the Manipur trans-port association, assured that he would enhance the duties of the police stations and out-

posts located along the NH 39 while also assuring that the patrolling of security forces personnel would be intensified.

The was held following the suspension of all trans-port services along the NH 39 after the burning down of an inter-state bus service on October 23 by militants. National Highways 39 and 53 leading to Manipur con-necting the rest of the coun-try have become a haven of criminal activities such as extortions and kidnappings.

Nagaland police had res-cued two Manipuri drivers from Nagaland after crimi-nals from Manipur abduct-ed the drivers for ransom few days ago.

On August 24 last, a pas-senger bus of the Royal Tours and Travels (MN01-1448) was looted by 5 gunmen in the early hours in an area known as Uchan Makhong along NH 39, about half a ki-lometer away from Piphema

town in Kohima. The robbers had reportedly looted about Rs. 15,000 in cash, three mo-bile handsets and even body search some girl students travelling in the bus.

This incident was also followed by the kidnapping of three freight truck drivers on October 26 by unknown gunmen some where at Homepipe area of Dimapur in Nagaland. They were how-ever released two days later af-ter being paid a ransom of Rs. 15,000. According to reports, they were arrested for failing to pay the annual tax to the ‘concerned outfits’. However, the incident that still lingers in the minds of the people is the incident of October 23 wherein two persons were charred to death when the bus they were traveling in was set on fire by militants along NH 39 in Assam. The incident in-vited condemnation from all corners of the state including the government, civil and stu-dent organizations.

It is worth noting here that this incident was perhaps the caused for the suspension of bus service along the national highways recently.

Regarding the security along the national highway, according to reports, O Ibobi Singh had informed on Octo-ber 29 that the Assam Rifles and other military personnel were in-charge of the high-way at the moment. He also conveyed that the state was pressuring the central gov-ernment for help in security of the highways.

And as per latest reports, the chief minister has as-sured to intensify the patrol along the NH 39 to tighten the security and make the journey safer for the pas-sengers. Chief minister Ibobi Singh is also reported to have assured about state government’s intimation to Army’s 3 Corps to help in providing security along the national highway in Na-galand and Assam.

Tripura to sell rubber wood boards in overseas market

Newmai News NetworkGuwahati | November 16

APART FROM BRING-ING fear psychosis in the mind of the people, the Oc-tober 30 serial blasts tragedy has also very much affected the business establishments in the state as traders are now not free to carry out their activities for the obvi-ous reason.

Traders fear that if the violent activities continue to persist in Assam, the prob-lem for business communi-ty in Assam is certain.

According to official sources, the shops in the commercial hubs like Ga-neshguri, Pan Bazar and Fancy Market in Guwa-hati have been witnessing very few customers as com-pared to the time before the serial blasts.

"This is mist probably because the people are still in the trauma after the re-cent serial blasts and prefer staying indoors," said a re-tailer based in Guwahati.

Many traders in the Ga-neshguri area which was once, the most happening hang outs in Guwahati is re-ported to be facing a major setback in its business and the crowded market place

has become deserted these days. The traders were seen to be sitting idle in the peak hours and that heavy loss has been incurred among the traders since the blasts. It has been reported that the worst hit in the business were the vendors of the per-ishable items such as fruits, vegetables that happen to be their only source of live-lihood. One of the vegetable vendors named, Sunit Das lamented, “Due to poor sale after the blasts, most of our vegetables got wasted. I am incurring a loss of Rs. 500 everyday. This is my only source of livelihood and I cannot afford to throw away rotten vegetables."

Sources revealed that al-most all kinds of trade like garment trade, silk garment business were affected due to the blasts.

According to reports, after the recent serial blasts the small and big trad-ers alike had to keep their shops closed for many days at a stretch. The small trad-ers as well as the big trad-ers have been affected by the blasts and therefore the impact of the closing of the markets was 80 per cent re-duction in their daily busi-ness, sources added.

GUWAHATI, NOVEM-BER 15 (AGENCIES): Ac-cusing the ruling Congress of failure to stem the rise in ter-rorist activities in the state, the opposition combine, led by Asom Gana Parishad, on Saturday demanded a CBI probe into the October 30 serial blasts in Assam and demanded the Tarun Gogoi government be dismissed.

Demanding that the October 30 serial blasts in Guwahati, Kokrajhar, Bar-

peta and Bongaigaon be expeditiously probed, the parties at a meeting here cautioned the people to keep vigil against terrorist and fundamentalist forces. The meeting also demand-ed immediate sealing of the international borders of As-sam, AGP president Chan-dra Mohan Patowari told reporters later.

The meeting chaired by Patowari urged the militant organisations and the gov-

ernment to sit for talks to solve their problems across the table in the interest of peace and development of the state. Terming those re-sponsible for the blasts as "anti-human, the opposition parties demanded stringent punishment be given to those behind the gameplan.

Demanding the dismiss-al of the Tarun Gogoi gov-ernment for "failing to fight militancy and fundamental-ism, besides protect the life

and property of people", the parties decided to observe a three-hour sit-in demon-stration in front of the Raj Bhavan here on November 22 from 11.00 am. The anti-Congress parties taking part in the meeting were BJP, NCP, ASDC, BPPF and Sa-majwadi Party.Though the Asom United Democratic Front (AUDF) had assured to attend the meeting, they kept away as also CPI and CPI(M).

Manipur Transport Association demands tighter security along NHs

AGARTALA, NOVEM-BER 16 (PTI): Tripura, the second largest rubber-grow-ing state, will sell processed rubber wood board, which can be used for making fur-niture, in the domestic and the overseas markets.

The Tripura Rubber Wood Factory, a rubber tim-ber processing unit run by the Tripura Forest Develop-ment Plantation Corpora-tion, has started producing solid rubber wood boards (8ftx4ft) of different thick-nesses, TFDPC General Manager Arup Ratan Shar-ma said. The rubber wood and rubber wood boards can be used for making furni-ture, he said.

Tripura, which produces about 20,000 tonne annually, is the second largest rubber-growing state in the country after Kerala. Up to 85,000 hectare have been identified for rubber plantation.

Encouraged by the huge production of rubber in the state and its potential for ex-pansion, the Tripura Indus-trial Development Corpora-tion (TIDC) and the Rubber Board of India are setting up a rubber park, the second of it’s kind after Kerala.

The park would be set up on 50 acre at Bodhjung-nagar, the industrial growth centre in West Tripura dis-trict, TIDC Chairman Pabi-tra Kar said.

Assam Blasts: AGP-led opposition demands CBI probe October 30 blasts affecting business

Despite the banned imposed by the Supreme Court in 1996, illegally cut woods have been seen logged at the bank of the river Brahmaputra at Koilaghat in Dibrugarh on November 16. (UB Photos)

Aged Manipuri women fi sh vendors from remote areas of Manipur waits for the bus in a makeshift bus stand to go to Imphal to sell their fi sh on Sunday, November 16. (UB Photos)

Children from diferent community taking out a mass rally against bomb blasts, indiscriminate fi ring and inhuman acts by the Indian Armed Forces on November 16 at Moirang. (UB PHOTOS)

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.

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

I N - F O C U S6 THE EDIT PAGE

C O M M E N T A R Y Praful Bidwai

LEFT WING | Jerome Bonnafont

The Power of Truth

The Morung ExpressMONDAY 17 NOVEMBER 2008 VOL. III ISSUE 319

We Cannot Afford To Fail

In the run-up to today's Washington summit, aimed at building a joint glob-al answer to the financial crisis and restoring confidence, Europe, under the presidency of President Nicolas Sarkozy, has shown its determination to of-fer a strong proposal for action. This crisis is no accident. It stems from ma-

jor imbalances that have been affecting the financial sector and which France, with other European countries, has strongly and consistently denounced. The market meltdown is the result of excessive risks taken for speculative reasons by under-regulated financial bodies and credit organisations. It also demonstrates a perversion of capitalism in which money and financial markets become an end in themselves and are no longer instruments for financing economic and industrial activities. It is the outcome of a policy where borrowing was almost considered superior to and more efficient than saving and investing.

The immediate victims of the tempest are obviously the financial actors and stock exchange markets. But the shock is far more violent, its ripples being felt worldwide and disrupting even more companies, denied access to credit, individuals who see their prospects severely threatened and countries faced with the risk of recession or insufficient growth. It is a risk for the glob-al economy and for the success of poverty alleviation strategies. Faced with such a situation, it is the duty of governments to act strongly in order to make sure that the economy continues to grow. Each of ours has done so, by ensur-ing liquidity, saving threatened institutions, protecting our peoples' savings and deposits. It is worth underlining the solidarity shown by all members of the European Union. But in the era of interdependence, joint and coordinat-ed action at the global level is also required. In keeping with the responsibili-ties thrust upon them by their people, governments must develop a strong collective response so as to avoid the repetition of such a disaster.

Hence the necessity to gather not only the G8, but also the economic giants and financial powers of our times, which obviously includes India, so that all stakeholders can assume their responsibilities and agree on a robust and efficient reform. That was the aim of the proposal presented to India during the EU-India summit on September 29 in Marseille, and to the US in Camp David, which resulted in the organisation of the sum-mit in Washington. For this summit to be useful, Europe has put forward ambitious proposals based on four principles. First, no financial institu-tion or market segment should escape the jurisdiction of a proportionate and adequate regulation, or at least a monitoring system. This is aimed at financial players such as credit rating agencies or leveraged funds. The effective implementation of this principle would be the responsibility of the national authorities, possibly under the supervision of international financial institutions. Measures should also be taken, at both the national and international levels, to protect the stability of international financial systems against uncooperative offshore financial centres.

Second, the new financial system must be based on responsibility and transparency. The financial operations information system must be more comprehensive. Mechanisms encouraging excessive risk-taking, namely se-curitisation risks and business executives' pay policies, should be controlled. Ultimately, institutions defining financial accounting standards should be reformed so that there may be a real dialogue with prudential authorities. Third, a better understanding of risks is required to prevent crises. Towards this end, major international financial groups should be monitored by rel-evant national authorities through a collective supervision system. An early warning system must be set up to identify risk growth or speculative bubbles in advance. Multilateral monitoring must be reformed to prevent and absorb global imbalances. Fourth, the IMF, which bears legitimacy and universality, must be made the pivot of a renovated international system. Its role and gover-nance should be better structured, its means of intervention modernised and reinforced, including through new financing capabilities, so that it may act in a preventive manner and be of help to countries affected by the crisis. The Washington summit should determine a working method. A period of 100 days should be used to prepare measures stemming from the principles de-fined today. Another summit should be held at the end of this period to review their implementation, take fresh decisions on the regulation of the financial system and forward proposals on the international economic architecture.

Finally, Europe wants it to be clear that action at the financial level should be compatible with other efforts on major global issues. The trade round has to find a balanced and equitable outcome aimed at helping poor-est countries find their place in the global trade system. The Doha confer-ence on the follow-up of the commitments towards the Millennium Devel-opment Goals is of critical importance: the international community has to make sure that strategies for poverty alleviation, education for all, health, water sanitation, among others, receive a new impulse. Climate change dis-cussions must result in a powerful post-Kyoto regime. We are living in a period when political action can shape the world for decades. Should we fail, we would not only face a period of gloom, but also run the risk of widespread protest from people confronted with a globalisation perceived as a threat. If we succeed in launching the work on an enhanced financial architecture that the global economy requires, we stand the chance of restoring the con-ditions for a sustained growth rate worldwide. More than ever before, India and Europe can work together towards a better regulated globalisation and a world economy able to fulfil its primary task: creation of better living con-ditions for all, poverty alleviation and sustainable development.

The writer is France's ambassador to India.

Antonio Graceffo is a wanted man. His crime? Sup-porting the Shan people in their rebellion against the ruling military junta in Burma, known eu-phemistically as the State Peace and Develop-

ment Council (SPDC). A former successful Wall Street investment banker from Brooklyn turned travel and ad-venture writer, Antonio has authored numerous books, including about his adventures bicycling around Taiwan, bicycling across the Taklamakan Desert in China, and his time studying with the monks at the famous Shaolin Temple. More recently, he has been involved trying to bring the world's attention to the plight of the Burmese people suffering under the brutal reign of the SPDC.

Since outside journalists are banned from entering the country, Antonio crossed the border under the protection of the Shan State Army (SSA) and began reporting on con-ditions in the country, interviewing victims of the SPDC's war against the people, writing about what he learned, and producing a series of videos featured on YouTube to bring awareness about the plight of the Shan. Perhaps more well known than the SSA are another resistance group known as the Karen National Union (KNU), and its armed wing, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), who were featured in the 2008 movie "Rambo", starring Sylvester Stallone in the fourth installment in the film series.

But while Stallone played a fictional character, Antonio Graceffo, one could fairly say, is the real Rambo. An expe-rienced martial artist featured on the Discovery Channel and in a number of martial arts films, Antonio was em-bedded with the Shan State Army and helped train Shan soldiers in the art of close-contact self-defense. Among An-tonio's videos on YouTube are several featuring him dem-onstrating martial arts techniques and sparring with SSA soldiers. It is on a purported KNU website that an image of Antonio appears under a heading reading "wanted", remi-niscent of an old Western poster -- except, of course, that Antonio is wearing the cap and uniform of the Shan State Army instead of a cowboy hat and leather vest, and holding a Kalashnikov rifle instead of a Winchester.

The website, MyanmarNargis.org, has a few tell-tale signs of being a false front operation--what is eu-phemistically known in the field as "counterintelli-gence"-- headed up in fact by the SPDC. Perhaps not least among these signs is the name, "Myanmar", which is the ruling regime's name-change for the country that is otherwise known -- particularly among opposition groups who do not recognize the regime -- as Burma.

And the fact that a "wanted" poster for a man who has helped the rebels on a website of a rebel organiza-tion is also more than slightly counter-intuitive. Anti-junta groups Antonio remains in contact with con-firmed to him that it is a disinformation site designed by the SPDC to create disunity and infighting among and within opposition groups. "Fortunately," says An-tonio, "most people working on the Burma issue don’t trust anything written in Burmese. Each of the tribes has its own language and alphabet. Most of them are smart enough to use English on their websites to gar-ner international support. The junta, it appears, is not that smart. But, since General Ne Win forcibly closed

Unlike the rest of the world, which has welcomed the election of Barack Obama as president of the United States, Indian poli-

cymakers have misgivings, rooted in his campaign statements on Kashmir, nucle-ar non-proliferation and business process outsourcing from the U.S. to India. How-ever, according to independent commenta-tors, these misgivings may be misplaced, not least because Obama is unlikely to translate his campaign remarks into actual policies, and because they underestimate the positive contribution that his presiden-cy is likely to make at the global level.

Yet, some of these misgivings and ap-prehensions persist despite a long-awaited telephone call from the president-elect to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, which materialised Thursday. Soon after his election, Obama had called the leaders of nine nations, including Pakistan, but did not make contact with Singh. Indian offi-cials say Obama had tried to reach Singh earlier, but no call could be put through because Singh was on a visit to West Asia.

"Whatever the truth about difficul-ties in completing a telephone call in this age of communication and mobile telephone proliferation, the fact is that Indian policymakers have been loath to give up their preoccupation with George W. Bush," says Kamal Mitra Chenoy, a professor at the School of In-ternational Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. "That probably was a factor in the lack of enthusiasm that they feel about welcoming the next president of

the U.S.,'' Chenoy said.Chenoy added: "This is unfortunate

given the historic character of Obama’s victory, the tectonic shift in the balance of forces that it represents in the globe’s most influential nation, and the hope it has kindled the world over in the possibility of major and radical change towards in-clusion, equality, and respect for diversity and pluralism." The debate in the corri-dors of power in New Delhi is focused not so much on whether Obama will pursue a less arrogant, aggressive and unilateral-ist foreign policy, as on whether he will re-store the ‘even-handed’ treatment of India and Pakistan that existed before the Bush administration came into power.

Similarly, Indian business leaders, es-pecially in information technology-relat-ed companies, are more concerned with warding off pressures for restrictions on outsourcing from the U.S. to India than on exploring new opportunities and ave-nues of cooperation. The most worried lot in India are the foreign policy mandarins, who have for three years invested heavily in negotiating and completing the U.S.- India nuclear cooperation deal, itself part of Washington’s effort to draw India into a close strategic relationship with itself.

As Kanwal Sibal, a former foreign secretary (chief of diplomatic service), puts it: " India's view of the U.S. has been heavily coloured by the nuclear deal. Politically and professionally, an excessive public show of gratitude to Bush, however appropriate in private for his staunch support for India, was

Naga Media: An Agent of Change

Today the National Press day is being commemorated in the sub-conti-nent; and what does this mean to the media community in Nagaland. While the situation and circumstances in the Naga context is obviously quite different, the media in Nagaland must along with their own reali-

ties take into serious account the changing realities of the world. It is within these complex realities that the Naga media must exist and create its own sense of purpose and direction. The Naga media therefore needs to be under-stood from these contesting realities and the purpose driven standing point of those who are engaged in this profession called mass communication.

If media can be called as an “agent of change,” than its purpose needs to be relevant to the context and the people. In situations of strife the relation between fear and change cannot be ignored. Fear is at the heart of what con-stitutes the nature of change. Although fear is a natural phenomenon, it has often been used as an instrument by which people are ruled, or prevented from expressing their opinions. For instance, the fear of guns, fear of losing privileges, fear of being branded, fear of responsibilities and fear of change. But, once people can take off and overcome that coat of fear, the powerful are no longer powerful and those in power become powerless because they no longer possess the power of fear over people. It is by overcoming fear that people can realize they are mediums of change.

Aung San Suu Kyi states "It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of pow-er corrupts those subject to it." Mahatma Gandhi recognized that those in power need the powerless to survive, and that once the powerless under-stand that fact, they will act accordingly. It is the emotions of fear that de-fine the distinction between doubt and certainty. Is it not fear that creates doubts in our minds and hearts? It is in this spectrum of emotions that the media is located. Media undoubtedly has the potential to be part of the critical yeast that kindles critical consciousness which empowers people to make informed decisions. Unfortunately, empirical truth reveals that media too has more often than not been responsible for creating fear, rather than liberating the human spirit. Therefore it is essential to analyze whether the media in the context of the Naga reality, is an instrument that facilitates constructive change, or caters to the powers that be. It is therefore important that the Naga media must be a critical element in enabling and empowering people to overcome fear, so that positive change is made possible.

There is an overwhelming need for the Naga media to go beyond describ-ing a situation merely in terms of position or official statements. The Naga skyline is filled with lies, rumors, propaganda suspicions, hatred and accusa-tions; and therefore, the Naga media has to go beyond the headlines and un-cover the story behind the headline. The media must inform people by telling the truth - the truth of the people - and to promote an understanding led by facts. There is therefore a call for at least a minimum degree of truth search-ing; so that elements of an investigative form of communication becomes the touchstone of the Naga media. In a society that has been crippled by overwhelming circumstances, the media has to critically facilitate the growth of critical consciousness and thinking. The Naga media must reflectively en-sure the vibrancy and dynamism of the Nagas and it should develop a deeper understanding of realities. For the Naga media to be a constructive agent of change, it must however first break free from its own chains and demonstrate the will to create a vision for a society that is hungry for change.

Uneasy About Obama Victory

A Wanted Man in Burma

inadvisable and needlessly made the U.S.-India relationship personality-driven rather than interest-driven." Sibal here refers to Singh telling Bush in September: ‘’The people of India love you deeply..." This was widely criti-cised by the political opposition in this country and by many foreign policy and strategic experts.

So obsessed were Indian policymakers with portraying the nuclear deal as a great achievement, and as amounting to Bush's acceptance of India as a nuclear weapons state, that they did not publicise -- as they would normally have done -- a letter that Obama wrote to Singh on Sep. 23. In the letter, Obama regretted that he could not meet Singh during his September visit to the United States, and said he very much looked forward "to doing so in the near future". He also expressed his "great ad-miration for the courage you showed in shepherding the civil nuclear cooperation agreement through your Parliament, the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Nuclear Suppliers Group."

Obama added: "But I see this agree-ment only as a beginning of a much closer relationship between our two great coun-tries. I would like to see U.S.-India rela-tions grow across the board to reflect our shared interests, shared values, shared sense of threats, and ever burgeoning ties between our two economies and societies." However, Obama also wrote: "I will work with the U.S. Senate to secure ratification of the international treaty [Comprehen-sive Test Ban Treaty] banning nuclear weapons testing at the earliest practical day, and then launch a major diplomatic initiative to ensure its entry into force."

He also promised to "pursue negotia-tion on a verifiable, multilateral treaty to end production of fissile material for nu-clear weapons," known as the Fissile Ma-terial Cut-off Treaty (FMCT). This raised hackles in New Delhi because it is reluc-tant to sign either of these treaties and would like to build a substantial stock-pile of bomb fuel and nuclear weapons before doing so. Obama’s stated positions on many issues are progressive, favour a more balanced and peaceful world, and deserve to be welcomed. These include Iran, Russia, and Son-of-Star-Wars-style ballistic missile defence (BMD).

If he begins a dialogue with Iran, stops NATO expansion, builds friendly relations with Russia, delays BMD de-ployment, and renews the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty due to expire next year, while de-alerting and disarming a sub-stantial number of nuclear weapons, he

will have made a major contribution to defusing rivalries aggravated by the Re-publicans. Obama also holds that unless the U.S. and Russia radically reduce their nuclear arsenals, they won't be able to per-suade smaller nations like Iran and North Korea to forgo their nuclear programmes.

But Indian policymakers have been lukewarm towards these positions be-cause they view them through the nar-row prisms of India-Pakistan relations, his remarks about mediating on the Kashmir issue with the possible involve-ment of former president Bill Clinton, and outsourcing. In practice, Obama is unlikely to want to undermine the com-petitiveness of U.S. industry by halting outsourcing. Many Indian IT industry leaders think so too.

His campaign statements on the Kash-mir question are unlikely to translate into policy since they will have to take into ac-count India’s reservations on the issue. As his transition team recently clarified, the U.S. remains committed to support-ing the bilateral India-Pakistan dialogue process to resolve Kashmir and other con-tentious issues. As for the CTBT, even Atal Behari Vajpayee was all prepared to sign it in 1999, after declaring a unilateral moratorium on nuclear test explosions, based on a careful strategic assessment that further testing is not necessary for an adequate minimum nuclear deterrent.

"If India is truly committed to global, universal nuclear disarmament, as it says it is, it must recognise that the CTBT and FMCT are indispensable steps in that process, says Achin Vanaik, professor of international relations and global politics at Delhi University. "India must stop be-ing defensive about these treaties and ac-tively help bring them into force. Vanaik said it was unlikely that ''Obama will risk damaging Washington’s relations with India by aggressively pushing agendas, especially regional ones that New Delhi is uncomfortable with. It is a sign of Indian policymakers’ diffidence and their lack of appreciation of India’s growing eco-nomic, political and strategic weight in today’s world that they think otherwise''.

Vanaik argues that India can posi-tively engage Obama by seeking his co-operation in an initiative for reform of the global governance system, including a more democratic United Nations, re-structuring of the World Bank, the Inter-national Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organisation, by promoting a a more equitable international economic order, and by demanding a non-confron-tational cooperative security system.

all of Burma’s universities, to prevent smart people from meeting and exchanging political ideas, it is no wonder that they are slipping intellectually."

The text of the website page featuring the "wanted" poster, which requires the proper character encoding to be installed on one's computer in order to read it, was translated for Antonio by a person he described as "an exiled Burmese intellectual, who had to flee Burma and seek asylum in another country. He hates the junta with a passion and supports the resistance groups." The exile noted along with his translation to Antonio, "the KNU has cleared your name and so we cannot sell you by the kilo to them." (How very disappointing for those of us who know his whereabouts). The page heading, under the "wanted" poster, reads "The Former Marine Who Would Combine Military Forces with Terrorists." It describes the KNU, SSA and other resistance groups, as "armed terrorists" (perhaps--just maybe--another sign that the website is a counterintelligence front of the SPDC). It describes Antonio as "a former US Marine Italian race, American citizen", and as being the head of a small group travelling within the country. It says Antonio's group "is surely going to have to run and escape for their lives as they go through the Armed Forces' Offensives" but that "it is more certain they will die violent deaths."

Not very polite. Fortunately, Antonio is not actu-ally in Burma currently -- nor was he during the period of time last month the website alleges he was moving through the country with his "group" -- a merry band,

no doubt. As much as the page seems designed to put people on the lookout for Antonio, it also seems intend-ed to sow resentment among opposition leaders. Take, for instance, the insertion of this tidbit: "5th Brigade Commander Baw Kyaw Hair, on his part, was dissat-isfied with how the present congress has appointed a central group in which General Tamlabaw's sons and daughters have important posts in the KNU."

Baw Kyaw Hair's group "favors having a ceasefire with the present military government and exchange arms for peace", the website says. (The exiled transla-tor noted to Antonio that "this is an SPDC phrase for complete surrendering of one's forces and one's weapons to SPDC -- very indicative of an SPDC author".) That author adds, "It is heard that 6th Brigade Commander Hsarmi is [also] dissatisfied with Tamlabaw's circle of family and friends." The intent thus seems to try to poi-son relations among rebel groups as much as to threaten Mr. Graceffo -- not that such a warning from the violent SPDC should be taken lightly. While Antonio always manages to keep his sense of humor, despite the dan-ger and despite the ugliness he has witnessed firsthand, the oppression in Burma under the military junta of the SPDC is no laughing matter. It's high time the world took notice and took action. Antonio's courageous work in defiance of the ruling regime has been intended to fur-ther that goal. To close, in the words of Antonio, "please say a prayer for the people of Shan State."

Jeremy R. Hammond

Naga Reconciliation Is Possible; FNR grateful

•Sir- The Naga Reconciliation Soccer match on November 13 at the Dimapur District Sports Complex was a historic moment and a symbolic public action that has instilled hope in all of us. While the Naga Reconciliation Soccer Match is only a means to enable and strengthen public participation in the process, through this event, we know that the Naga political groups are committed and sincere; and that Naga reconciliation is possible.

The Forum for Naga Reconciliation is overwhelmed by the support and the messages of solidarity that we have received from individuals and organizations all across the length and breadth of Naga-Lands. The Forum for Naga Reconciliation wishes to express our profound appreciation and thanks to all who have positively contributed to the successful organizing of the reconciliation soccer at the DDSC. We want to particularly express our gratitude to Dimapur DC, Moangwati Aier Dimapur Municipal Corporation Khekaho Assumi for extending monetary assistance towards the Naga Reconciliation Soccer match. We acknowledge and appreciate the Dimapur SP Liremo Lotha for taking the responsibility in creating a con-ducive and secure environment within the city during the event.

The FNR further expresses our appreciation to the Editors, journalist and the broader media com-munity in Nagaland for their continuing support and for enabling publicity and awareness on the Naga Reconciliation process; to the DNSU and all young student friends for their proactive volunteering works and the public for their positive participation to witness this historic reconciliation football match. We also acknowledge all those individuals who have sincerely contributed in terms of labor and resources but wish to remain anonymous. We remain indebted to all those organizations that have come forward in strengthening the Naga reconciliation process. Thank you all for the partnership in action and for the solidarity demon-strated to translate our common hopes and dream into reality.

The Forum for Naga Reconciliation once again declare our commitment to the cause for Naga reconcilia-tion on the basis of the historical and political rights of the Nagas; and as are persuaded in our strive to affirm that the Naga reconciliation is in the common interest of all Nagas and for the future of our people.

Forum for Naga Reconciliation

Letters to the Editor

MONDAYTHE MORUNG EXPRESS17 NOVEMBER 2008

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

NEWS ANALYSIS, FEATURE AND DISCOURSE7 P E R S P E C T I V E

The Morung ExpressWho should be responsible for the sanitation in your locality?

Some of those who voted MUNICIPALITY had this to say:

• It depends on whether it is private and pub-lic property. The responsibility of sanitation will depend on that. While the society at large is responsible for sanitation, because it effects everyone, we still need to define the matter in legal terms. The public is responsible for the sanitation of their own private property and also to ensure that waste does not flow into an-other person’s private property. The munici-pality is responsible for the public property and also to see that proper facilities are provid-ed to private citizens to dispose off their waste material. So on the whole the municipality is responsible and I think this is clearly stated in the municipal act.

• If not them who else is capable to do so? Unless we have a sewer and drainage system like cit-ies, the municipal should be responsible.

• Provide dustbin properly• It will work better when there is a system in

place and someone is answerable or account-able to it.

• There is no proper dumping ground. Just look at the one before you reach Kohima, it’s a shame and it is a mirror image of Nagaland. I feel the municipalities are responsible for ensuring that they maintain good dumping

grounds and to also create re-cycling facilities. A lot of the waste that are thrown away like bottles, cans and paper can be recycled only if everyone applies their mind. The public should be responsible for seeing that they put the garbage in order so that the municipality can pick them up and throw them away to the dumping grounds.

• Municipality should run an awareness cam-paign, only then public take responsibility...Anyway, do we even have a municipal board that works outside their office?/ all we hear of them is through newspapers, about some resig-nation and new appointees...

• Sanitation is the primary responsibility of the municipality. Yes, there is no doubt the public is responsible for keeping their locality clean and hygienic, but when you talk in terms of sanitation, the municipality has to see that the garbage if being picked up regularly and that there is infrastructure in place to take care of dumping garbage, good drainage system and seeing that health concerns are being ad-dressed.

• What are they doing/will do with the tax mon-ey if they don’t clean? While the public are re-sponsible for cleaning their surroundings the Municipal council is totally responsible for drainage...etc. etc.

• Why else do they receive their salary for? Surely not to create one controversy after an-other, but to keep the city clean and healthy! (the public has a role too, but the municipality has the bigger share!)

• Municipality, because under the municipal act, it was the duty of the municipal council for sanitation work. If the public are compel to work on sanitation job than they must be paid instead.

Some of those who voted PUBLIC had this to say:

• Every citizen is responsible• Having a clean place to live in...means starting

from throwing a sweet wrapper into a dustbin to throwing our own garbage into the thrash bin.."IT SHOULD START FROM US" not the public nor the municipal or others...if we start then eventually it will pay off!

• An individual knows his own need and to have an environmental hygiene. If the municipal did something good but if the public do not

know or keep the value of it, it will become useless. If one needs cleanliness at home he needs it more outside.

• In your own locality if u do not take care of it..who will???

• If the government build public toilets, then let the local youth clubs maintain the clean-liness with proper water facility. If the local clubs take sincere initiative, funds will not be a constraint for buying materials required for maintenance. Do not blame the government if people do not have civic sense. Let us sanitize Dimapur, Kohima, Mokokchung and all dis-trict towns. The standard of your toilet deter-mines how civilize you are, health wise.

• Public of course! But most people seem to think that it is the duty of others to clean it for them. Come on! There’s nothing degrading to clean the drain and paths in your area!

Some of those who voted OTHERS had this to say:

• C'mon! We all carry our A**** around and we drop it when the call of nature arrives. Who should be responsible? The one carrying the A**! Likewise, we all should be responsible for we are the ones who drop it and we should pick it up. It should start at HOME. Civic sense is never learnt on the streets. "sigh"

• Municipality and public are to be blame .The ignorance of both are to be counted.

• Both because it belongs to both• Both the public and municipality has miser-

ably failed in the area of sanitation. They keep blaming each other, whereas they both need to coordinate to see that sanitation is main-tained.

• It definitely starts with the public. But the mu-nicipality is also responsible in checking and directing the drains.

• Most Naga towns are not planned at all and they all lack proper drainage system. This is the main cause of worry. So it’s a cycle that keeps going round and round. Even if the public take care of their waste, where do they throw it, there is no proper waste facility, and so they end up throwing it in another colony and this does not solve the problem at all. For sanitation, both public and municipality must be involved and the government must take care to see that proper drainage and waste fa-cilities are created.

34%36%

30%

MUNICIPALITY PUBLIC OTHERS

POLL RESULTS

A Target ForeverAcquitted by the Supreme Court,

but suspected by people everywhereSar Geelani

Professor, University of Delhi

At 11.30 AM on November 6, 2008, I reached the Arts Faculty of Delhi University to chair a seminar on ‘Communalism, Fascism and Democracy: Rhetoric and Reality’. As I took

my seat, I hardly knew that in just a few minutes I would be the focus of a brazen fascist attack. Barely had I sat down that a student approached me pretend-ing to want to speak to me. But instead, he spat on me. Immediately, all hell broke loose. Members of the ABVP/RSS in the audience and outside the hall start-ed screaming, and breaking furniture and window-panes. Undeterred by the large police presence, they abused not just me but the entire Muslim community. For a moment, I was shocked. But as the man who spat on me raised slogans, I realised that he was from the RSS-BJP culture. These are the people who murdered Prof. Sabherwal in Ujjain and, very recently, demon-strated this behaviour in Orissa and in Karnataka.

This is the fascism of those who claim to repre-sent Indian culture. A wrong message goes out to the world that violence represents Indian culture. I have seen this fascism all the while since I was arrested as an accused in December 2001 in the Parliament at-tack case and even after I was acquitted in 2005.

Indeed, life after acquittal has been very difficult not just for me but also for my family. It’s a long story. I have been identified as a target; anything can hap-pen any moment. In 2005, there was an assassina-tion attempt on me. I got six bullets. Doctors gave up hope but I miraculously survived. A year earlier, I had given an affidavit to the Supreme Court saying there was a danger to my life. There have been sever-al other attempts. I know there is danger around me.

I avoid accompanying my wife and my children anywhere as I don’t want them identified with me. I tried to go shopping with them once or twice but it became impossible and we came back quickly. Earli-er, when I was in prison, no Delhi school would admit my son (now in the 7th standard) and daughter (now in the 11th standard). I had to send them to Kashmir to study. Despite the Supreme Court acquitting me, no landlord would rent me his house.

Once, after my acquittal, my family and I were traveling to Jammu by train. A politician was travel-ling in the same coach. The next morning, one of his security personnel complained to me, “Geelanisaheb, you didn’t let us sleep last night.” Apparently, the poli-tician was so scared of my being in the coach that he sat up the night and forced his security men to stay awake, too. Another time I was travelling by Shatabdi Express to Lucknow from Delhi to attend a meeting at the invitation of Magsaysay Award winner Sandeep Pandey. During the journey, I went to the washroom. When I returned everyone was on tenterhooks about my luggage. Once I was attending a meeting at Jawa-harlal Nehru University in New Delhi in 2004 when RSS activists surrounded it and began stoning it.

But some good things, too, have happened. Ear-lier this year, I was invited to deliver a lecture at IIT Kanpur on the issue of Kashmir. Those attending in-cluded some Hindu boys from Gujarat. My speech was roundly applauded. Later, at tea break, this group of Gujarati boys came up to me and began apologising. I said: I have never met you, so why apologise? It so happened that when the death sentence on Parliament attack accused, Afzal Guru, was upheld, I had led a sit-in at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi. Uma Bharti had organised a counter sit-in there, which these boys had joined. “We abused you that day,” they said. “We said a lot of things we are ashamed of now.”

The media has played a highly dubious role in turning the people against me. I remember the first time I was paraded before the media on December 16, 2001. Every TV channel and newspaper was there. It was like walking the ramp. I shouted: we are being framed. But no one reported what I said. In-stead, their banner headlines said a university pro-fessor had led the terrorists. Throughout the trial, the media ignored the defence and only reported the police version.

After I was released from prison, I was aghast to see that every newspaper had — falsely — blown up my alleged role in terrorism, claiming that I had masterminded the Parliament attack. Many in the media had even equated me with Osama bin Laden. A Hindi newspaper claimed I was running a terror-ist network from England to Aligarh, a city I have never visited. Another report said I had recruited Omar Sheikh (who the then foreign minister, Jas-want Singh, had handed over to the Taliban in Kan-dahar) while he was studying at the London School of Economics — where I’ve never studied. A promi-nent Hindi TV news network made a film portraying me as the mastermind of not just the Parliament at-tack but of the entire militancy in Kashmir!

Finally, the High Court and then the Supreme Court acquitted me of all charges. In fact, the High Court found that the police had forged documents and fabricated the evidence. But the media portrayed a picture that is now stuck in the peoples’ minds. This is true for others, too. In Hyderabad, a court last week acquitted some Muslim youth held for the Mecca Masjid blast. The media hasn’t bothered to report this. In Mumbai, a court had acquitted all the accused of bombing a bus in 2003. No one reported it.

I HAVE SEEN the intelligence agencies very close-ly. Sitting with them, I never felt I was in a government office of a democratic country. Instead, it felt like the RSS headquarters. These agencies are highly commu-nalised. Unfortunately, there is a lot of embedded jour-nalism going on. The intelligence agencies plant stories through many journalists, who happily publish them.

Most importantly, however, it is the people of In-dia who have forgotten to question their government. I repeatedly ask people: do you know who actually attacked Parliament on December 13, 2001? Nobody knows and nobody has asked. That is why, at the mo-ment, things look bad. Prejudice rules. The demo-cratic space is shrinking. We must resolve to suffer to preserve the open democratic space so that our fu-ture generations benefit.

Because I talk about the rights of the Kashmiri people I am a clear target. But that again is the gov-ernment’s fault. If the Indian government had given the people a true picture of the Kashmir issue there would not have been these kinds of difficulties for us, or even for the government of India and Pakistan to resolve it. But there is so much false propaganda and misinformation that people don’t know what really is the Kashmir problem.

Dhruba Adhikary & Charles McDermid

Like any deeply revered religious prophet worthy of his robes, Ne-pal's "Buddha Boy" has returned from the wilderness to spread

enlightenment to the masses. The long-lost mystic in question is Ram Bahadur Bamjan, who many believe is a true-to-life reincarnation of Siddhartha Gauta-ma, who was born in about 560 BC and later became revered as Lord Buddha, the Enlightened One.

In Hindu-majority Nepal, Hindu-ism and Buddhism frequently overlap. Hindus believe in reincarnation, and Buddhists ascribe to the notion of re-birth - and in Nepal both faiths are often transfixed by religious wonders, mira-cles and mysteries. Only some 50% of Nepal's 25 million population is literate, and illiteracy is widespread in rural ar-eas. So it was that Bamjan, looking every bit like a disheveled teenager, emerged from dense jungle on November 10, and got straight to work - preaching at a temple about 150 kilometers south of the capital Kathmandu.

He claimed that his soul-searching hiatus began in early 2005, and his first words were grim. "Incidents of death and destruction are on the rise because peo-ple have become indifferent to religious teachings," he announced to the 10,000 reported followers who flocked to the site on the day of his return.

Bamjan, whose age has been placed between 17 and 20, was raised in Nepal's devoutly Buddhist Taamaang communi-ty. He has been worshipped since 2005, when he was discovered meditating in the lotus position among the roots of an ancient tree. Local legend has it that he maintained the position for 10 months without food or water.

On his recent return, however, there was no sitting around. Adorned in a shimmering white cloth and appearing quite hale for a hermit, Bamjan kicked off his first sermon by narrating his quest for the "reason of death". It all began, he explained, when he witnessed a human cremation at the age of six.

Interestingly, his tale parallels the Buddhist stories in which Prince Sid-dhartha, before he reached enlighten-ment, is said to have seen deaths, dis-eases and infirmities associated with old age. Still, some among the congregation grew skeptical when they saw Bamjan, sporting long black hair, halt repeatedly during his 45-minute exegesis.

Each time the alleged Buddha paused, an acolyte came forward to whis-per in his ear, seemingly prompting him to encourage his audience to pay atten-tion if they intended on receiving happi-ness. Those who bowed and offered him khaadaa (holy scarves ) received bless-ings as he placed an august hand on their heads.

Villagers of Ratanpuri town, Bara

district, converged by the thousands at the Halkhoria forest to observe the "holy man". The crowd grew larger as a local Buddhist group advertised in newspa-pers and on radio networks. Instantly, the story captivated the domestic media and drew attention from major interna-tional news agencies.

No Buddhist organization has en-dorsed the claims of Ram Bahadur Bam-jan, also known as Palden Dorjee, or his followers. Some have sent investigators to the area and are awaiting reports. Remarks from Buddhist scholars thus far indicate divided opinion. "Bamjan seems to be someone blessed with divine power," Bekha Ratna Shakya, a devout Buddhist and a former mayor of Lalit-pur town, told Asia Times Online.

Kedar Shakya, a writer and former Lumbini University associate, also sup-ported Bamjan's holiness and argued that Bamjan should be allowed to continue to meditate. The return of Bamjan has prompted many Nepalese to recall an in-cident several years ago when the nation was fascinated by rumors that stone idols of Ganesh, the elephant-headed Hindu god, had begun to drink milk.Syncretism Nepal-style

In Nepal, the distinction between Buddhist and Hindu can be nominal. There are also temples in Nepal where the same stone idol is worshipped by Hindu and Buddhist priests. The tra-dition of Kumari is one striking ex-

A Buddhist messiah in Maoist Nepal?ample: an adolescent girl is selected to be the Hindu goddess, Kumari, but she must be from a Buddhist family. Kumari appears in public at least once a year and gives blessings to the reign-ing king. And, after all, Buddha was born as a prince to a Hindu king.

But culture is in an intense transition in Ne-pal. Since the monarchy was abolished in May, Ku-mari now offers her blessings to the elected pres-ident. Considering Nepal's devout and syncretic attitudes, the Bamjan episode is not without irony. The post-monarchy government is currently made up of communists who do not support religion. Maoist leader Prachanda, for example, avoids Hindu ceremonies and festivals. If he attends any religious function at all, it is perceived as a pub-lic relations exercise with an eye on votes from a particular community. (Newspapers once pictured him amid Muslims with prayer caps.)

As Nepal transitions from a Hindu monarchy to a secular republic, observers believe it has un-wittingly opened itself to proselytizers of several religious groups. Even as many Maoists identi-fy themselves as atheists or agnostics, some of their top leaders are said to be lured by affluent churches such as the Unification Church of the Reverend Moon.Bamboozled by 'Buddha Boy'

Many of the devotees now surrounding Bam-jan have described the experience in shades of reli-gious adoration. ("It was an amazing experience to hear and see him. I have no doubt now he is the re-incarnation of Buddha," a woman named Sangeeta Lama told The Associated Press.)

But others are more dubious, including the government. Government officials told Asia Times Online that police were investigating a complaint that a Korean national was orchestrating the entire affair. Meanwhile, a group of local residents has called the hysteria a pretext to grab a large tract of lush forest land. They claim that their religion is being taken advantage of.

Doubts also persist as to why no medical check-up was done to determine if Bamjan did ac-tually abstain from food or water during the past months. Others have asked why members of the audience were warned not to ask any questions regarding Bamjan's methods of meditation. One report claimed that a French journalist filmed Bamjan "nibbling on fruit while supposedly mid-way through a fast". According to the Australian, "Another correspondent found him asleep while he was supposed to be meditating."

Media reports also point out that when Bam-jan emerged as a divine presence for the first time three years ago, devotees gave donations to the tune of 700,000 rupees (US$9,022). At that time, authorities discovered that Maoist elements were cashing in on the superstition prevalent in the region. Police later seized the alms. But Bamjan's emergence - be he holy man or charlatan - is an important cultural event for a transforming Ne-pal. The hype and hyperbole he inspires must be considered along with the happiness he has brought to true believers.

With democratic atheists in government, and a cautious eye on religious conflicts in neighboring countries, it is still unclear what role religion will have in the new Nepal. A teenager named Ram Ba-hadur Bamjan may bring some kind of enlighten-ment after all.

CMYK

CMYK

17 November 2008Monday8 Dimapur The Morung ExpressNATIONAL

NEWS FILECourt raps doctor for bad handwritingMUMBAI, NOVEMBER 16 (AFP): An Indian doctor has sworn a legal undertaking that she will improve her handwriting after judges complained that they could not read her spidery scrawl, media here said Saturday. The radiologist from Thane, in the greater Mumbai area, had been asked to file a report in the case of a man who claimed that his underage daughter had been forced into marriage by a neighbour. The medic conducted an age test on the girl, found her to be over 18 and that she wanted to stay in the marriage, leading to the dismissal of her father’s case. But the doctor’s conclusions had to be relayed by telephone to the Bombay High Court Fri-day, as she was not present at the hearing and the two judges could not decipher her handwriting. The judges rejected her excuse that her writing was poor because she wrote hundreds of reports every day. “You may be dealing with hundreds of reports but you must write in legible hand,” they added. The doctor has signed a court affidavit pledging to improve her script, lawyers said.

Hijacked ship Stolt Valor released, Indian sailors safeMUMBAI, NOVEMBER 16 (PTI): M T Stolt Valor, a cargo ship with 18 Indian sailors on board and hijacked by Somalian pirates in the Gulf of Aden two months back, has been released, National Union of Seafarers of India (NUSI) said today. The Indian sailors were on the way to Mumbai, it said. NUSI Chairman Abdul Gani said, “There is no major medical problem (among the sail-ors).” He refused to go into details about the release but said, “definitely ransom has been paid but we will not be able to go into details of the amount.” Gani also thanked the Indian Navy and said, “we appreciate the efforts of the Indian Navy. Definitely it (ship) would be escorted out safely from the danger zone.” Seema Goel, wife of Capt of the ship Prabhat Goel, told PTI, “I got an official information from DG shipping that the ship has been released by the hijackers today. “They will be reaching India in another four-five days,” she said. Asked whether any ransom was paid for the release, Goel said she had no information how the release was secured.

MUMBAI, NOVEMBER 16 (AFP): Parochial identity politics are gripping India’s most cosmo-politan city, Mumbai, stoking fears that intimidation and deadly vio-lence used for local ends are threat-ening a fragile sense of national unity. At the centre of the row is Raj Thackeray, the leader of the Maha-rashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) party, who pushes a hard line of more jobs for people from Maha-rashtra state – of which Mumbai is the capital – and vigorously pro-motes the local Marathi language.

In that regard, he is the latest in a long line of Indian political lead-ers who look to secure their power base by tapping into the fierce sense of regional identity in this country of one billion people. But it is the violence that often follows Thackeray’s pronouncements – particularly towards north Indian migrant workers who flock to the

city to find jobs – that has caused concern in India’s financial capital and beyond.

MNS activists last month beat up north Indians who came to sit an exam to work on the railways and one man died after being thrown from a train. Violence then erupted after Thackeray was arrested and accused of inciting the unrest. This week the state government post-poned the release of a film dealing with the struggle of north Indian migrant workers in Mumbai, fear-ing it could inflame real-life com-munity tensions.

For now, Thackeray is on bail and banned from making public statements. But as some north In-dians begin leaving Maharashtra – and those that have stayed be-hind live in fear -- many are brac-ing for the next flashpoint. Battle lines have already been drawn. In north India, there have been vio-

lent counter-protests and a politi-cal party has even offered to send its supporters to Mumbai to protect non-Maharashtrians.

Thackeray’s claims to be the guardian of local culture and iden-tity, protecting it from the cheap labour of non-Marathi-speaking “outsiders”, mirrors the immigra-tion debate around the world. He may have support, particularly among the city and state’s impover-ished underclass, but some see his chauvinistic brand of rabble-rous-ing politics as damaging the image of Mumbai, Maharashtra and the country.

“Raj Thackeray is... dividing In-dia by unleashing his goon squads on fellow Indians, with fatal conse-quences, just because they happen to come from outside the state,” the leading weekly magazine India To-day said recently. Others have said the belligerent Thackeray embod-

ies the kind of sectarianism that in-dependence and partition in 1947 – when the subcontinent was carved into Hindu-majority India and mainly Muslim Pakistan – were in-tended to eliminate.

Like many, Mahesh Vijapurkar, a former deputy editor at the Eng-lish-language newspaper The Hin-du, sees Raj Thackeray as a mod-ern-day incarnation of his uncle Bal Thackeray who led a 1960s fight for a “Maharashtra for Marathis.” The ageing Bal is still leader of the Hin-du nationalist Shiv Sena party, of which MNS is an offshoot. It was Shiv Sena that changed the name of the former Bombay to Mumbai in the mid-1990s as part of a drive to reflect Marathi culture.

Its activists were also identi-fied in a judicial report as being involved in the deadly communal riots between Hindus and Mus-lims in Mumbai in 1992-93 that left

more than 1,000 people dead. “He (Raj Thackeray) is exactly his un-cle’s clone in every which way,” Vi-japurkar told AFP. But the nephew has added economics into the mix of deep-seated Indian divisions along language, caste and regional lines, the former politics and gov-ernment specialist added.

“People are getting worried about their share of the economic pie,” he said. How to resolve the tense situation is far from clear, as state elections in Maharashtra loom early next year. But there is a popular belief the ruling coali-tion in the state government here has been muted in its criticism of Thackeray hoping that a split in the vote between Shiv Sena and the MNS could well keep them in power. “It’s cynical politics of the state... In India you can play poli-tics with regard to identity. It’s par for the course,” Vijapurkar said.

Divide and rule? Parochial identity politics stoke fears

NEW DELHI, NOVEM-BER 16 (AGENCIES): Congress general secretary M Veerappa Moily has said that senior party leader Mar-garet Alva, relieved of her party positions for her cash-for-tickets charges, was “an enemy of herself.”

In an interview, he denied that any coterie within the party was working against her and said: “She was an en-emy of herself. I don’t think she needs any outside en-emy on an issue like this.” Asked if the party was justi-fied in removing Alva from the posts held by her, Moily said it was unfortunate but inevitable since her public utterances were a breach of discipline.

Alva was relieved of her posts after she alleged on No-vember 6 that the ticket dis-tribution for the Karnataka Assembly elections in May 2008 had been bungled and that some party leaders had taken money to select candi-dates. “It was most unfortu-nate. We are not happy she had to go, but this was inevi-table, particularly after the kind of statements she gave, which breached the party discipline,” Moily said.

Asked about an inquiry into Alva’s allegations, Moily said: “Where is the question?

When all these matters have been gone into by the A K Antony Committee, and thereafter there is no issue. Since there are no issues, the question of examining (her allegations) did not arise.” In reply to another question, he said: “We have made an inquiry. It’s a motivated al-legation made by Yogendra Makwana; we have verified it, it is wrong.”

Makwana, a senior par-ty leader and former union minister, had backed Alva’s allegations. Moily said there is no ban in the party on giv-ing tickets to the kith and kin of politicians but there is an absolute transparency in the distribution of tick-ets. This, he said, was in ac-cordance with the wishes of Rahul Gandhi, son of party president Sonia Gandhi and a general secretary.

“The Congress has not put a total ban on the kith and kin or the children of any politician. I can produce volumes and volumes of re-cords to demonstrate there is absolute transparency and lots of interaction took place with everyone,” he said. “Ul-timately, the outcome (selec-tion of candidates) came out after a proper exercise and interaction.”

“It is very much in accor-

‘Margaret Alva isan enemy of herself’

A boy fishes in a polluted lake in Hyderabad, Novem-ber 16. (AP Photo)

NEW DELHI, NOVEM-BER 16 (PTI): Fearing that dissidents could topple its apple-cart, Congress wants to send a message to the rank and file by taking “strong” ac-tion against rebels continu-ing in the fray in the Delhi Assembly elections despite “cajoling” by senior leaders.

Though leaders who are clandestinely playing the “spoiler” against candidates may escape the wrath of the party for the time being, Congress is adamant in send-ing the message that it will not entertain dissidence at a time when it is fighting anti-incumbency in the election. “No one is bigger than party. Those who deviate from party discipline will have to pay the price. Strong action will be taken,” DPCC president Jai Prakash Aggarwal told PTI.

Aggarwal and other senior

leaders were flooded with com-plaints from candidates across the capital that some local leaders in their constituency were working against them. At a function organised here yes-terday by the DPCC, some of the candidates were seen com-plaining to Aggarwal about local leaders working against them or offering no help in their area. Some sought Aggar-wal’s intervention, which was “promptly” assured, while oth-ers wanted strict action against the “spoiler” as one candidate put it. “Give it in writing and I know what to do” was the re-sponse from Aggarwal.

Congress is facing rebel candidates in Mehrauli and Sangam Vihar. Former Delhi Mayor Satbir Singh is still in the fray from Mehrauli, a Jat dominated seat, where state Health Minister Yoganand Shastri is contesting.

Cong to crack whip on rebels, dissidents

SRINAGAR, NOVEMBER 16 (AFP): Five people were killed and 18 missing after a

newly constructed bridge col-lapsed over a fast-flowing river in the Himalayan region of In-

dian Kashmir, police said Sun-day. Volunteers and police who rushed to the site retrieved three

KOCHI, NOVEMBER 16 (PTI): Chief Justice of India K G Balakrish-nan today rubbishes reports of tussle between judiciary, executive and leg-islature and said it to be a media cre-ation. “There is no so called tussle. It is only the creation of the media,” Balakrishnan said rubbishing re-ports in this regard.

“I met Prime Minister Manmo-han Singh and Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee recently. There is no tussle,” the CJI said in an inter-view to Malyalam television channel ‘Asianet News’. “The Speaker has criticised the judiciary and when we get opportunity, we also reply back,” he said.

To bring down pendency of cases, each state should ask for more courts. Judiciary is not getting whole-heart-ed support from the concerned state governments for setting up courts, he said. On corruption in judiciary, the

CJI said, “I have never said corrup-tion is not there in judiciary... How-ever, either most of the complaints against judges are vague or are being given by litigants who have lost cases. We cannot inquire into such allega-tions... But when special instances are brought to the court’s notice like the case against Kolkata High Court judge, action has been initiated.” On ways to improve the judicial system in the country, Balakrishnan said the quality of justice system has to be im-proved.

Efforts are being made to ensure that media reported court proceed-ings in a correct and fair manner, he said, adding that a weeklong train-ing for media personnel will be held at IGNOU to improve their quality. Elaborating on the problem of pen-dency of cases, the CJI said, India is the only country where there is such huge pendency of cases.

dance with Rahulji’s wishes that it (ticket distribution) has to be transparent, it has to be broadbased and it has to be done through (a) process,” Moily said. The interview will be telecast at 8.30 pm on Sunday. Alva was dropped on

November 12 from the post of general secretary as well as from the membership of the Congress Working Commit-tee, the party’s highest deci-sion making body, and the Central Election Committee on charges of indiscipline.

Lalu Yadav calls L K Advani ‘terrorist’NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 16 (AGENCIES): Union railway minister Lalu Prasad slammed BJP leader L K Advani and called him a ‘terrorist’.

Even as the Malegaon blast probe continues, political parties are using the twists and turns in the story to gain mileage ahead of elections. In the latest round of verbal duels, Union railway minister Lalu Prasad slammed the BJP and Hindu groups who are suspected of involvement in the terror attacks.

Lashing out at the BJP, he called the party’s prime ministerial candidate a ‘terrorist’ and said such groups were trying to destroy the unity of the nation. Lalu said, “I’ve always been saying it. The BJP and L K Advani are terrorists. All of them should go to jail.” However, BJP leader Arun Jaitley dismissed Lalu’s comments deeming it unworthy of reply. He said, “I think there are some peo-ple who can singly lower the level of debate. They should not been given much of an importance.”

Five dead, 18 missing in Kashmir bridge collapse

The collapsed bridge is seen at Uri some 100 Kilometers (62 miles) west of Srinagar, No-vember 16. (AP Photo)

No tussle between judiciary, executive, legislature: CJIbodies from the debris of the

bridge in Uri district, 106 kilo-metres (65 miles) west of Kash-mir’s summer capital Srinagar. Two bodies were fished out of the Jhelum river that flows into neighbouring Pakistan-admin-istered Kashmir over which the bridge was built, police of-ficer Abdul Rashid told AFP by phone from Uri town. Most of the dead and missing were labourers involved in construc-tion or locals using the bridge, Rashid said, adding that it was not immediately clear what caused the collapse. Heavy rain and snow was hampering the relief effort, witness Irshad Ahmed said. The bridge was to be officially opened later this month. Construction-related accidents are common in India, where building contractors are often accused of using shoddy materials and paying scant re-gard to safety.

NEW DELHI, NOVEM-BER 16 (PTI): Puran Chand Yogi, a sitting BJP MLA from Rajinder Nagar and the party’s candidate from the constituency for the Del-hi assembly polls, allegedly committed suicide at his resi-dence on Sunday. Yogi, 73, was found hanging from the ceil-ing of his house in Inderpuri in south-west Delhi at around 7.15am by his wife Asha, a se-nior police officer said.

The three-time MLA was pitted against Ramakant Go-swami of the Congress in the elections and was actively campaigning in the constitu-ency. His wife told police that Yogi had woken up at around 5am and asked for the keys to an upper floor room where his election materials were kept. At around 7.15am, his wife went upstairs only to

find him hanging, the of-ficer said. Earlier, his fam-ily sources had said that the MLA had died following a heart attack. Yogi, formerly working with the Indian Oxygen Ltd, has a son and a daughter. Senior BJP leader and the party’s chief ministe-rial candidate V K Malhotra visited the MLA’s residence.

Born in Gujaranwala dis-trict of Pakistan in 1935, Yogi had been active in politics since 1967. He was first elect-ed to the assembly in 1993 and was re-elected in 1998 and 2003. In the last assem-bly polls, he had defeated Raj Kumar Kohli of Congress by 891 votes. “In all probability, the election in Rajinder Na-gar will be postponed and we will ask for a new candidate from the party,” a Delhi elec-tion official said.

BJP MLA commits suicide in Delhi

WASHINGTON, NO-VEMBER 16 (AGEN-CIES): Advocating a multi-faceted approach to tide over the current economic crisis, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday coordi-nated global fiscal stimulus to help mitigate the severity and duration of the reces-sion to give a strong signal to investors worldwide. Singh told the world leaders at the G-20 summit, convened by President George W Bush, that there was a need for a credible system of mul-tilateral surveillance that can signal the emergence of imbalances as the crisis was “far from over”.

The economist-turned politician made a prescrip-tive address covering vari-ous areas needing urgent attention like reforms of the multilateral financial institutions to enhance con-

cessional flows, a caution against protectionist poli-cies and changes in the glob-al financial architecture to avoid recurrence of the cri-sis. In his five page address at the plenary session of the day-long summit, Singh also sought a mechanism of consultation that can yield results in terms of policy coordination. He was heard with rapt attention by lead-ers including Bush, Brit-ish Prime Minister Gordon Brown, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso and Russian President Dim-itry Medvedev.

Cautioning that a slow-ing down of growth in devel-oping countries would push millions of people into pov-erty, Singh said, “These are not transient impacts but will impact a full genera-tion.” “It would be a great

pity if this growing support for open policies in the de-veloping world is weakened because of a failure to pro-tect developing countries from a recession which is not of their making. We need to take urgent steps to strengthen the global trad-ing system and forestall any protectionist tenden-cies which always surface in times of recession,” PM Manmohan Singh said.

“Emerging market coun-tries were not the cause of this crisis, but they are amongst its worst affected victims,” he added. “India is expe-riencing this negative im-pact. After growing at close to nine percent per year for four years, our growth rate is expected to slow down to between seven percent to 7.5 percent in the current finan-cial year,” Manmohan Singh informed the summit.

Children pay tributes to those killed in last month’s blasts in Assam state as they light candles in Calcutta on November 16. The blasts that tore through India’s northeastern Assam on October 30 killed 86 people and injured more than 300 others. (AP Photo)

Obama transition team gave ‘positive indications’ on tiesON BOARD PM’S SPECIAL AIR-CRAFT, NOVEMBER 16 (PTI): US President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team has given “positive indications” to In-dia about the bilateral ties and there is no reason to have any doubts about its inten-tions, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said today. The Obama transition team de-puted former Secretary of State Madeline Albright for interaction with the Indian side during the Prime Minister’s visit to Washington, Singh said, adding “they have given us all the positive indications.”

“There is no reason to have any doubts about the intentions of the Obama Admin-istration towards us. From whatever contact we have had we have no reasons to be appre-hensive about the change of the regime in the US,” he told reporters accompanying him in his aircraft on way back from the G-20 sum-mit he had attended in Washington. Ahead of Singh’s US visit, Obama had telephoned the Prime Minister on Wednesday last and described the Indo-US strategic relationship as a “very important partnership.”

MUMBAI, NOVEMBER 16 (PTI): CBI investiga-tions into the 2006 Nanded blast have come into ques-tion as the agency appears to have not taken due cogn-isance of deposition of one of the accused indicating first signs of militarisation of some of the self-styled right wing groups.

Sources in the Central security agencies said one of the accused, whose voice had to be restored after operating his vocal chord which was damaged in the blast, had told investigators that Na-resh Rajkondwar, a Bajrang Dal activist, had allegedly planned three blasts outside mosques that shook Jalna and Parbani in Maharashtra in 2003 and 2004.

The Nanded bomb blast took place in the interven-

ing night of April 4 and 5, 2006 at the residence of Lax-man Rajkondwar, allegedly a RSS worker. Rajkondwar’ son Naresh and Himanshu Panse who was VHP activ-ist were killed while assem-bling the bomb.

Though the CBI has chargesheeted ten people in the case, sources said, it has not been able to trace back the leads provided by some of the accused who claimed to have admitted, before in-vestigators, their role in the earlier blasts.

Recoveries made by the investigating agencies from Rajkondwar’s house included Muslim skull caps, fake beards and a plan showing that the target was to hit a Mosque at Aurang-abad, nearly 200 km from Nanded.

Protectionism should not be allowed’CBI did not take leads of Nanded blast seriously

The Morung ExpressMonday

17 November 2008Dimapur 9INTERNATIONAL

LONDON, NOVEMBER 16 (AFP): Prince Charles, who has just turned 60, wants to break with tradition and keep speaking out on key is-sues when he becomes king, biographer Jonathan Dimble-by said in The Sunday Times. Charles, the heir to the throne, is outspoken on several mat-ters such as climate change and architecture. However, sovereigns traditionally keep their opinions out of the pub-lic domain.

"There are now discreet moves afoot to redefine the future role of the sovereign so that it would allow King Charles III to speak out on matters of national or inter-national importance in ways that at the moment would be unthinkable," said broadcast-er Dimbleby, a close friend of the prince who wrote an au-thorised biography of Charles. Since inheriting the throne in 1952, Charles's mother Queen Elizabeth II has adhered to the tradition that the mon-arch's views are only heard by prime ministers and the privy council."To breach this con-vention, however cautiously,

would represent a seismic shift in the role of the sover-eign," Dimbleby wrote. "It has the potential to be politically and constitutionally explo-sive." Charles would not speak out to the degree he does now, Dimbleby said. "But those who believe Britain needs an 'active' sovereign in the 21st century claim that it would be a waste of his experience and accumulated wisdom for it to be straightjacketed within the confines of an annual Christ-mas message or his weekly au-dience with the prime minis-ter," he wrote.

Charles has told confi-dantes that he would like the role of monarch to evolve so that his experience and knowl-edge are not wasted once he inherits the throne, Dimbleby said. Supporters of the idea think it would be "missing a trick for him to be required to take a vow of monarchical silence." "This is not an issue that the prince likes to discuss in such terms even with his most trusted intimates," Dim-bleby said.

However, "he has latterly intimated to one or two of his

confidants that he would like his present role to evolve so that once he inherits the crown, his knowledge and experience, his contacts and his unique abil-ity to 'convene' others in the national interest could be put to good use rather than go to waste." Charles would speak "for the nation and to the na-tion" in the same vein as the presidents of Germany and Ireland. "Although these heads of state are required to be politi-cally non-partisan, they are oth-erwise free to speak their mind in public," Dimbleby said.

The veteran broadcaster also said that talks were un-derway between Downing Street and Buckingham Pal-ace about ending the ban on Catholic monarchs, which has prompted fears in royal circles about the disestablishment of the Church of England. The 1701 Act of Settlement bars monarchs or their heirs from becoming or marrying Catho-lics. However, reforming the act could be problematic as tinkering with the succession laws affects 15 other countries where the British monarch is head of state, including Can-

ada, Australia, New Zealand and Jamaica.

Charles continued his 60th birthday celebrations Saturday with a star-studded dinner at his country retreat, where he was serenaded by rocker Rod Stewart. The heir to the throne was entertained at his High-grove estate in Gloucester-shire, southwest England, at a bash thrown by his second wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall. Among those attending were "Mr Bean" comedian Rowan Atkinson, while other acting luminaries included Oscar-winner Judi Dench and Joanna Lumley.

Saturday was yet another night of celebrations for the prince, following a comedy show on Wednesday and a black-tie gala dinner thrown by Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday attended by more than 400 friends including European royalty. He spent his actual birthday on Friday in London meeting young people at projects led by the Prince's Trust and attending the Royal Opera House. The day was also marked by tradi-tional gun salutes.

‘Prince Charles wants to speak out as king’

Britain's Prince Charles shields his eye from the sunlight, while visiting a Prince's Trust project at Beckton Com-munity Centre in east London, on his 60th birthday on November 14. The Prince was attending the launch of Youth Week, a new project run by his Prince's Trust, which runs for seven days, and aims to challenge stereotypes about young people and encourage them to seek help from the trust. (AP Photo)

BANGKOK, NOVEMBER 16 (REUTERS): Ousted Thai prime minister Thak-sin Shinawatra has divorced his wife of the last 32 years, Potjaman, his spokesman said on Sunday, although he offered few explanations for the shock separation. “I can confirm that he has divorced but I did not ask for further details as I consider that per-sonal,” spokesman Pongthep Thepkanchana said. The di-vorce was believed to have taken place last week at the Thai consulate in Hong Kong, where Thaksin has spent time since the British government revoked his visa a week ago, Pongthep added. The consulate declined to comment.

Thaksin’s opponents and the Thai media, which has remained largely hostile since his removal in a 2006 coup, speculated the divorce was either a stunt to elicit

sympathy back home or a financial decision to protect the couple’s assets, most of which are thought to be in Potjaman’s name. Nearly $2 billion has been frozen in Thaksin’s Thai bank ac-counts since the coup, and both he and his wife have been convicted of corruption or conflict of interest offenc-es although have avoided jail by fleeing the country.

“I don’t believe they are divorcing because they can no longer spend their lives together. They have shared happiness and sadness for such a very long time,” said Sukhum Nualsakul, a po-litical scientist at Bangkok’s Ramkhmhaeng University. “It must be other reasons,” he said. Thaksin and Potjaman, who was renowned as a for-midable behind-the-scenes political operator during his five years in office, have three adult children.

Ousted Thai PM Thaksin divorces

In this July 31, 2008 file photo, ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra of Thailand and his wife Pojaman, left, arrive at criminal court in Bangkok, Thailand. Thaksin and Pojaman, who married in 1976, divorced at the Thai Consul General Office in Hong Kong on Friday, the English-language Nation and Bangkok Post newspapers reported. (AP Photo/File)

NKorea reports another public appearance for KimSEOUL, NOVEMBER 16 (AFP): North Korea report-ed Sunday that its leader Kim Jong-Il has made an-other public appearance in an apparent attempt to quell continuing rumours over his health. The North's official Korean Central News Agen-cy said Kim and his deputies had enjoyed a military art performance. "He warmly waved back to the enthusi-astically cheering perform-ers and congratulated them on their successful presen-tation," KCNA said, failing to state when and where the performance took place.

After he failed to attend a September 9 parade marking the country's 60th anniversa-ry, South Korean and US of-ficials said Kim had suffered a stroke around mid-August but was recovering well. Last week the Tokyo Broadcasting

System, citing an unnamed US intelligence source, re-ported that Kim, 66, suffered a second stroke in late Octo-ber. South Korean officials could not confirm the report.

Kim's health is the sub-ject of intense speculation because he has not publicly nominated a successor -- as his father had done more than 20 years before his death in 1994 -- to run the impov-erished, nuclear-armed state. North Korean state media have recently issued a series of still photos of Kim in pub-lic, in an apparent attempt to end the swirling speculation about his health. But they have all been undated, stok-ing even more rumours.

One of the photos, issued early this month, had been digitally altered to super-impose Kim's image onto a military group, experts said.

South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak said last week he believes the North Ko-rean leader has no problem governing. "Chairman Kim is able to handle state affairs, and I understand (he has) no problem in running the country," Lee told an inter-view with local media.

Japan's Prime Minister Taro Aso also said earlier this month that Kim was probably in hospital but still capable of making deci-sions. Some Seoul officials and North Korea experts say Jang Song-Taek, Kim's brother-in-law, has become more powerful since Kim fell sick, with some believing he is effectively standing in for the supreme leader. Jang, 62, is said to be in charge of the security and police agencies, including the dreaded secret police.

This six picture file composite image from November 3, shows Congolese war victims laying in Rutshuru's hospital, some 80 kms north of Goma, eastern Congo, after being wounded during recent fighting between troops loyal to Laurent Nkunda's rebel movement and the Congolese forces. Over 100 civilians have been treated in the hospital. Top row from left, Oliva (no age given), 20-year-old Elizabeth Kabaya and 12-year-old Martine Kanyange. Bottom row from left, 6-year old Gervais Semutaga, 11-year old Djemimana Ntabonimbsa and 8-year-old Samuel Semivumba. (AP Photo)

JOMBA, NOVEMBER 16 (AP): The U.N. special envoy to Congo met with the Central African country's main rebel leader Sunday for the first time, pressing to firmly establish a cease-fire even as the U.N. reported more heavy fighting in the east. The visit by former Nigerian President Oluse-gun Obasanjo came after he talked to Congo's president and the president of neighboring Angola in recent days, trying to get a resolution to Congo's political crisis.

Obasanjo flew Sunday by helicop-ter to the rebel-held town of Jomba, near the Ugandan border, and was greeted with a hug by gray-suited rebel leader Laurent Nkunda. After a two-hour meeting in a church com-pound, Obasanjo said the rebel leader agreed to maintain a fragile cease-fire. "(But) cease-fire maintenance is like dancing tango. One does not dance tango alone," Obasanjo noted.

Nkunda said the Congolese gov-ernment had to support the cease-fire as well. He described his talks with Obasanjo as "exploratory" and lauded the envoy's involvement as "great." Shortly afterward Obasanjo left for the regional capital, Goma. The U.N. envoy was due in Rwanda later Sun-day for talks with that country's presi-dent, Paul Kagame, who wields strong influence over Nkunda.

Nkunda, a former general, quit Congo's army in 2004 and launched a rebellion he claims is aimed at pro-tecting ethnic Tutsis from Hutu mili-tias who fled to Congo after Rwanda's 1994 genocide that left more than 500,000 mostly Tutsis dead. Critics, however, say Nkunda is more inter-ested in power and the country's min-

eral wealth. Ahead of the talks, clashes broke out in Ndeko, about 90 kilome-ters north of Goma, according Col. Jean-Paul Dietrich, a spokesman for the 17,000-strong peacekeeping mis-sion.

Dietrich described the Sunday morning battle between government soldiers and rebels as "heavy" and said six army troops were wounded. "We gave them first aid and we will evacu-ate them by helicopter" to a local hos-pital, Dietrich said. Low-level fight-ing among armed groups has ground on for years in Congo's lawless North Kivu province, but violence sharply escalated in August and has since dis-placed 250,000 people.

On Saturday, Obasanjo said Congo President Joseph Kabila was willing to talk to Nkunda and "did not give anything that I would call conditions" for holding talks. "But we are at the exploratory stage now," he admitted. Congo's government has said it is will-ing to meet Nkunda, but only along with the many other militias operat-ing in the region - not alone. Nkun-da has criticized the government for signing deals with Chinese companies to exploit the nation's mineral wealth. On Friday, Obasanjo visited Angola to speak with President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos, who assured him that no Angolan troops were in Congo despite numerous reports to the contrary.

Congo has called on Angola for military help, and some fear the cur-rent crisis could once again draw in other neighboring countries. Congo's devastating 1998-2002 war split the vast nation into rival fiefdoms and involved half a dozen African armies, including Angola's.

UN presses rebel leader on cease-fire

Monday17 November 2008 10 Dimapur The Morung ExpressSPORTS

BIRMINGHAM, NO-VEMBER 16 (AFP): Ni-colas Anelka maintained his magnificent start to life under Luiz Felipe Scolari to help Chelsea to a convinc-ing 3-0 victory over West Bromwich Albion at the Hawthorns and into the Pre-mier League record books. The French international striker took his personal goal tally for the season to 13 as Scolari's team made it ten successive away wins in the Premier League and confirmed the worst fears of West Bromwich Albion manager Tony Mowbray.

Mowbray's candid ad-mission that there are times when he goes into a game knowing that his side can-not win certainly proved true as Chelsea exposed the huge gulf in class over the Premier League's bottom side, in clambering back to the head of the title race. A few hours earlier they had lost their seat at the summit as a result of Liverpool's vic-tory at Bolton Wanderers, but they are in no mood to surrender that position on a permanent basis under the guidance of Brazilian Sco-lari as the goals continue to flow in a manner never seen under former coach Jose Mourinho.

Scolari has performed wonders enough in his

early months at Stamford Bridge, but his most telling contribution has been his impact on Nicolas Anelka, the French international so often referred to as "Le Sulk," but now with one of the broadest grins in the Premier League. Anelka superb form again ensured that Didier Drogba had to be satisfied with a place on the substitute's bench, just three days after his controversial coin throw-ing incident in the League Cup against Burnley and if Anelka continues like this he could remain their for some time.

He had already man-aged more goals on his own than Tony Mowbray's side collectively, prior to kick off and he made that statis-tic more embarrassing with two impressive finishes in the last eight minutes of the first half. His first was the result of Albion's inability to clear their defensive lines allowing Florent Malouda to guide a header into vast acres of space between Scott Carson and his defence and Anelka's devastating pace was matched with a sublime clip to punish another dis-appointing performance by the Albion goalkeeper.

Carson still harbours hopes of an England re-call, but, after last weekend's

rush of blood at Anfield, he again showed his fallibility by getting caught out at his near post by Jose Bosing-wa's swerving shot from the corner of the penalty area and he could only palm the ball into his own net to gift Chelsea the lead. Abdoulaye Meite could not have wished for a more difficult return game, after a spell of inactiv-ity with a thigh injury and in first half stoppage time his lack of first team minutes was cruelly exposed by the irrepressible Anelka.

Again his pace was simply too much to cope with, but he was assisted by some more uncertain goalkeeping from Carson, who allowed the French-man's shot to beat him at the near post. Only a won-derfully brave intervention by Jonas Olsson deprived Anelka of a hat-trick, while Deco and Salomon Kalou were both guilty of taking one touch too many when they could see the whites of Carson's eyes.

Drogba was unable to get into the act himself in a final 15 minute cameo, but there was still time for Malouda to waste another wonderful opportunity and the only consolation for Mowbray and his team was avoiding a more embarrass-ing defeat.

Anelka double keeps Chelsea on top

Chelsea's Michael Ballack, left, is tackled by West Bromwich Albion's Paul Robinson, bottom right, as West Bromwich Albion's Kim Do-heon, center left, and Chelsea's Deco, center right, look on during their English Premier League soccer match at the Hawthorns, West Bromwich, England on November 15. (AP Photo)

GLASGOW, NOVEM-BER 16 (AP): Diego Mara-dona arrived in Scotland on Sunday ahead of his first game in charge of Argen-tina's national team and, to the delight of the Scottish fans, autographed a photo of his famous "Hand of God" 1986 World Cup goal against England.

The soccer great is guar-anteed a big welcome when Argentina faces the Scots at Hampden Park on Wednes-day simply because of the home team's rivalry with neighbor England.

Maradona's two goals in that World Cup quarterfinal - one of them blatant cheat-ing when he punched the ball into the net and the other an amazing dribble through the England defense five min-utes later - earned Argentina a 2-1 victory in Mexico's Az-tec Stadium on the way to its second title triumph.

Reporters and photogra-

phers waiting to see Mara-dona were kept away from him by police and, when asked how he felt on his ar-rival, he replied in Span-ish: "Contento." His only response in English was "I don't speak English."

After initially climb-ing onto a bus, Maradona returned to the entrance of Glasgow airport and signed autographs, including on a poster of his famous hand-ball goal against England.

Maradona's appoint-ment has not met with uni-versal approval in Argen-tina because of his volatile temperament, history of drug bans and alcohol abuse which left him hugely over-weight and close to death.

But his health has re-vived and Argentina fans hope that he can transfer the ability he had as a player onto the bench as an inspira-tional coach alongside veter-an manager Carlos Bilardo.

New Argentina coach arrives in Scotland

Argentina Coach and former footballer, Diego Maradona, cen-tre, arrives with his team at Glasgow Airport, Scotland, on November 16. Argentina face Scotland in their International Challenge Match at Hampden Park on Wednesday.(AP Photo)

Yuvraj Singh in doubt for India's 2nd one-dayerINDORE, NOVEMBER 16 (AP): Acute back pain may force Yuvraj Singh out of India's second limited-overs international against England on Monday after the left-hander spurred the home side to a commanding win in the opening match. Yuvraj complained of back stress dur-ing Friday's first limited-overs international and used a runner as he posted an unbeaten 138 that helped India clinch a 158-run victory in the first of seven matches. In-dia captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said Yuvraj's condi-tion was improving, but a decision on whether to name him for the second one-dayer at the central Indian city of Indore will not be taken until Monday morning. "There's considerable improvement in Yuvraj's condition, but we'll take a final call on him just before the start of play," Dhoni said Sunday. Yuvraj's dazzling knock helped India clinch its highest ever victory by runs against England, whose previous biggest loss to India batting second was by 86 runs at Sydney in 1985. England allrounder and former limited-overs captain Paul Collingwood said Yuvraj's ab-sence would be a big advantage for the tourists. "It was one of the best innings in one-day internationals, Yuvraj scored heavily against us even in the twenty20 World Championship" last year, Collingwood said. "If he's not able to play, obviously it would be bonus for us." Colling-wood said pace bowler Ryan Sidebottom has regained fitness and could provide the variety that was missing from the England attack during the opening match. "We need to be more aggressive and we'll definitely bounce back," he said. " India will continue to be without pace spearhead Ishant Sharma, who also missed the opening limited-overs international in Rajkot due to an ankle sprain suffered during the final test match against Aus-tralia. Sharma was named player of the four-test series against Australia, which India clinched 2-0 just three days ahead of the limited-overs series with England. "Ishant is virtually out of this match," Dhoni said. Dhoni urged his players to guard against complacency after posting a big win in the first match, saying England should not be taken lightly. "We're always wary of becoming compla-cent," said Dhoni, who says the current England bowling attack is superior to the one that visited India two years ago. England's touring team drew the 2006 test series 1-1, but India dominated the limited-overs internationals 5-1. "England's a good side. It has a very good attack and we're not taking it lightly," Dhoni said.

MADRID, NOVEMBER 16 (REUTERS): Real Madrid's poor run of form continued on Saturday when the Prim-era Liga champions lost 1-0 at struggling Real Valladolid and missed the chance to take over from Barcelona at the top of the table. Valladolid were thrashed 6-0 by Barca at the Nou Camp last weekend but shocked a sluggish-looking Real by taking the lead short-ly after the break. Midfielder Fabian Canobbio found space on the edge of the penalty area and the Uruguayan lashed a left-foot shot high into the net past Iker Casillas. Real mounted a desperate charge for an equaliser and almost found one in the 75th minute but Valladolid keeper Sergio Asenjo saved two powerful drives from midfielder Wes-ley Sneijder in quick succes-

sion. Asenjo made a string of superb stops during the match and kept Raul's weak effort out near the end after the striker intercepted a stray back pass and was through on goal. Real's misery was compound-ed shortly before the end when their Argentina defender Ga-briel Heinze was sent off after receiving two yellow cards in quick succession.

Barcelona visit Recre-ativo Huelva in Sunday's late match having won their last eight league games, scoring 33 goals. They have 25 points, one ahead of unbeaten Villarreal, who play at Malaga on Sunday. Third-placed Valencia, who have 23 points, host Sporting Gijon later on Saturday (2100 GMT). Real remain fourth, also with 23 points but behind Valencia on goal difference, while Valladolid provisionally

jump to 10th with 13 points.Real have leaked eight

goals at the Bernabeu in their last three matches and suffered a humiliating mid-week exit from the King's Cup to third-tier side Real Union. The pressure is in-creasing on coach Bernd Schuster who said after Sat-urday's defeat that his play-ers were working hard but were feeling the absence of a number of first-choice play-ers. The German's injury list includes Dutch striker Ruud van Nistelrooy, who is out for the season after having knee surgery, his compatriot Ar-jen Robben, central defender Pepe and midfielders Ruben de la Red and Mahamadou Diarra. "This was a match we did not think we would lose," Schuster told a news conference.

Feeble Real lose at strugglers ValladolidChina jails, fines Beijing Olympics ticket scalper

Paul Biedermann from Germany celebrates after win-ning the men's 200 meters freestyle final at the FINA short course swimming World Cup in Berlin on No-vember 16. Biedermann set a new world record in 01:40:83 minutes. (AP Photo)

BEIJING, NOVEMBER 16 (AP): A man found guilty of scalping more than 500 tickets to the Beijing Olym-pics was sentenced to two and a half years in jail and a $65,000 fine, state media reported Sunday.

The 41-year-old Chinese national used illegally ob-tained identification infor-mation to book 527 Olym-pic tickets with 230,000 yuan ($34,000) through the organizers' online ticketing system, the official Xinhua News Agency said. Xinhua said the man, surnamed He, had agreed to obtain the tickets for two companies in

Beijing and Guangzhou - at a profit of 50 percent to 60 percent of official prices.

He was arrested by police on May 13, Xinhua said. Bei-jing Olympics organizers in the lead up to the games had warned that ticket scalping is illegal and anyone caught risked being detained for up to 15 days.

The police also raised the threat of re-education through labor, where Chi-nese can be sentenced to manual labor camps without trial. A total of seven million tickets were available for the Aug. 8-24 Beijing Olympics, three-quarters of which were

sold in China through the official ticketing Web site or at ticket outlets.

Between May 5, when the final round of Olympic tick-et sales began in China, and July 27, police caught about 100 Chinese black market-ers, some whom tried to sell tickets at up to 100 times their original value, state media earlier reported.

Olympic tickets were printed with warnings that they could not be resold or traded, and opening and closing ceremony tickets could only be transferred once to person approved by the organizers.

AMSTERDAM, NOVEM-BER 16 (AP) - Ajax kept its title chase on track Sunday by beating PSV Eindhoven 4-1 to stay tied at the top of the Dutch league. Dennis Rommedahl, who has failed to establish a regular start-ing slot since coach Marco van Basten's offseason ar-rival, played a one-two with Urby Emanuelson and set up Uruguay winger Luis Su-

arez for Ajax's opening goal in the 27th. Midfielder Ibra-him Afellay equalized for PSV in the 56th from Danko Lazovic's cross but substitute Miralem Sulejmani restored the lead in the 74th, capital-izing on a rebound after PSV goalkeeper Andreas Isaksson failed to hold on to Emanu-elson's hard shot. Erik Piet-ers made things worse for PSV, directing Suarez's goal-

bound shot into his own net in the 78th and substitute Leonardo added the fourth in the 90th. It was only Ajax's second home victory against the defending cham-pion since the opening of the Amsterdam Arena in 1996. Ajax and NAC Breda lead the standings with 25 points each. AZ Alkmaar could join them later Sunday with a win at Vitesse Arnhem.

Ajax tops PSV 4-1 in Dutch league

North Korean players celebrate after winning the FIFA under-17 Women's World Cup at North Harbor Stadium in Auckland, New Zealand on November 16. North Korea beat the USA 2-1 in their soccer final match. (AP Photo)

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The Morung Express MondayDimapur 1117 November 2008Ent /Tab lo id

PRIME TIMEPRIME TIMEPRIME TIME06:00 - Fashion House; 07:00 - Friday Night Lights; 08:00 - Seinfeld; 08:30 - Friends; 09:00 - Less Than Perfect; 09:30 - Samantha Who?; 10:00 - Grey’s Anatomy; 11:00 -

America’s Got Talent; 12:00 - Boston Legal; 14:00 - The Ellen Degeneres Show; 15:00 - Fashion House; 16:00 - Cold Case; 17:00 - Grey’s Anatomy; 18:00 - Friday Night Lights; 19:00 - Friends; 19:30 - Seinfeld; 20:00 - Life With Bonnie; 20:30 - According To Jim; 21:00 - Last Comic Standing; 22:00 - Ugly Betty; 23:00 - Jimmy Kimmel; 00:00 - FriEnds; 00:30 - Seinfeld; 01:00 - The Simpsons; 01:30 - My Wife And Kids; 02:00 - Grey’s Anatomy; 03:00 - The Ellen Degeneres Show; 04:00 - Cold Case; 05:00 - The Simpsons; 05:30 - Kenneth Copeland

05:10 - Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd.; 07:45 - Global Tele Mall (Entertainment) ; 08:00 - Jhankaar Beats (Entertainment; 09:00 - Once Upon A Time In China - Iii) ; 12:00 - Film Desh Devi; 15:45 - Don; 17:45 - Don; 20:00 - Krrish; 00:00 -

Krrish; 00:15 - Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi; 03:00 - Inner World Of Shahrukh Khan; 04:00 - Star Gold Special ; 04:15 - Betaabi

06:00 - The Jeff Corwin Experience; 07:00 - Teleshopping; 08:00 - Meerkat Manor; 09:00 - Lyndal’s Lifeline; 10:00 - Baby Planet; 11:00 - Max’s Big Tracks; 12:00 - Wild Africa; 13:00 - Incredible Journeys With Steve Leonard; 14:00 - The Jeff Corwin Experience; 15:00 - Penguin Safari With Nigel Marven; 16:00 - The Most Extreme; 17:00 - Lyndal’s Lifeline; 18:00 - Meerkat Manor; 19:00 - Max’s Big Tracks; 20:00 - Wild Africa; 21:00 - Penguin Safari With

Nigel Marven; 22:00 - Animal Planet Safari; 23:00 - The MoSt Extreme; 00:00 - Meerkat Manor; 01:00 - Teleshopping; 02:00 - Petsburgh Usa; 03:00 - Monkey Business; 04:00 - Petsburgh Usa; 05:00 - Monkey Business

06:00 - Telebrands; 07:00 - Dirty Jobs; 08:00 - Planet Earth; 09:00 - New Detectives - The Case Studies In Forensic Scie; 10:00 - Discovery’s Biggest Shows; 12:00 - Amazing Baby Videos; 12:30 - Baby Whisperer 1; 13:00 - Planet

Earth; 14:00 - Discover India; 15:00 - Discovery On Demand; 16:00 - Wild Discovery; 17:00 - Wild Safari; 18:00 - India With Sanjeev Bhaskar; 19:00 - Hunters; 20:00 - Giant Of The Skies: Building The Airbus A380; 21:00 - Futureweapons; 22:00 - Man Vs. Wild; 23:00 - Extreme Engineering; 00:00 - Wild Discovery; 01:00 - Telebrands; 02:00 - Extreme Engineering; 03:00 - India With Sanjeev Bhaskar; 04:00 - I Shouldn’t Be Alive; 05:00 - Extreme Engineering

06:00 - Seva Ganga; 06:30 - Vignan Shashwat Sukh Ka; 07:00 - Sangam; 07:30 - Raja Ki Ayegi; 08:00 - Kyunki Saas Bhi; 08:30 - Kayamath; 09:00 - Kumkum; 09:30 - Kahaani Ghar; 10:00 - Kis Desh

Mein Hai; 10:30 - Hamari Devrani; 11:00 - Grihasti; 11:30 - Raja Ki Ayegi; 12:00 - Bidaai; 12:30 - Kis Desh Mein Hai; 13:00 - Kumkum; 13:30 - Hamari Devrani; 14:00 - Karam; 14:30 - Grihasti; 15:00 - Kyunki Saas Bhi; 15:30 - Kayamath; 16:00 - Sangam; 16:30 - Santaan; 17:00 - Kasturi; 17:30 - Raja Ki Ayegi; 18:00 - Bidaai; 18:30 - Hamari Devrani; 19:00 - Sangam; 19:30 - Santaan; 20:00 - Raja Ki Ayegi; 20:30 - Kis Desh Mein Hai; 21:00 - Bidaai; 21:30 - Kasturi; 22:00 - Kahaani Ghar; 22:30 - Kyunki Saas Bhi; 23:00 - Kayamath; 23:30 - Karam; 00:00 - Kasturi; 00:30 - Kumkum; 01:00 - Bidaai; 01:30 - Kis Desh Mein Hai; 02:00 - Grihasti; 02:30 - Kayamath; 03:00 - Hamari Devrani; 03:30 - Kahaani Ghar; 04:00 - Kyunki Saas Bhi; 04:30 - Raja Ki Ayegi; 05:00 - Disney Time

05:35 - Antonia And Jane; 06:45 - Marvin’s Room; 08:50 - Wishful Thinking; 10:40 - Tom Yum Goong; 12:50 - Reign Of Fire; 14:55 - Dear Frankie; 17:05 - Kiss Of The Dragon;

19:00 - The Santa Clause; 21:00 - The Hot Chick; 23:05 - Last Exit; 01:00 - Wishful Thinking; 02:35 - Dear Frankie; 04:25 - She’s All That

0:00 - Winning Post; 0:30 - Australian Golf-Western Australia Pga Champ Hls; 1:30 - Rugby

League World Cup Live: Semi Final 1; 3:30 - Simply The Best; 4:00 - Fifa: Futbol Mundial; 4:30 - Pak V West Indies -2nd Odi - H/L’s; 6:30 - Icl Hl’s - Final 2; 7:30 - Wwe:vintage Collection; 8:30 - Winning Post; 9:00 - Uefa Champions League Magazine Show 08; 9:30 - Dutch League; 11:30 - World Hockey Magazine; 12:00 - Pak V West Indies -2nd Odi - H/L’s; 14:00 - Atp Tennis; 14:30 - Rugby League World Cup Live: Semi FinaL 2; 16:30 - Pak V West Indies -3rd Odi -1st Session; 18:30 - Icl: Final 3; 23:00 - Pak V West Indies 3rd Odi - 2nd Session

06:00 - Just Your Luck; 07:45 - Black Beauty; 09:30 - Reign Over Me; 12:00 - Forbidden Secrets; 13:45 - Varsity Blues; 15:45 - The Making Of Norbit; 16:00 - Hollywood One On One 15; 16:30 - The

Prestige; 19:15 - I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer; 21:00 - The Last Boyscout; 23:00 - The Hitcher; 00:45 - Dark Storm; 02:30 - Boomerang; 04:45 - Juwanna Mann

06:00 - Sadgamaya; 06:30 - The Faith Show; 07:00 - Enjoying Everyday Life; 07:25 - Ek Nazar; 07:30 - Sales Slot; 07:55exposure Jhalak; 08:00 - Teleshopping; 08:25 - Ek Nazar; 08:30 - Jai Ganesh; 09:00 - Ramayan; 09:30 - Naaginn; 10:00 - Vivaah; 10:30 - Betiyann; 11:00 - Maayka; 11:30 - Saat Phere; 12:00 - Dulhann; 12:30 - Kasamh Se; 13:00 -

Parrivaar; 13:30 - Rakhi; 14:00 - Teen Bahuraaniyaan; 14:30 - Ranbir Rano; 15:00 - Dulhann; 15:30 - Maayka; 16:00 - Saat Phere; 16:30 - Kahani Ab Tak; 17:00 - Teen BahuRaaniyaan; 17:30 - Betiyann; 18:00 - Kasamh Se; 18:30 - Saat Phere; 19:00 - Vivaah; 19:30 - Shrii; 20:00 - Dulhann; 20:30 - Maayka; 21:00 - Kasamh Se; 21:30 - Saat Phere; 22:00 - Betiyann; 22:30 - Ranbir Rano; 23:00 - Waaris; 23:30 - Kasamh Se; 23:55ek Nazar; 00 - :00 - Asian Sky Shop; 00:55exposure; 01:00 - Asian Sky Shop; 02:00 - Teen Bahuraaniyaan; 02:30 - Kasamh Se; 03:00 - Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 200 - 9; 04:00 - Vivaah; 04:30 - Urja; 05:00 - Parrivaar; 05:30 - Narseva Narayan Seva

06:00 - Mann Mein Hai Visshwas; 07:00 - Telebrands; 07:30 - Teleshopping; 08:30 - Benaam Badshah; 12:00 - Hum Ladkiyan; 12:30 - Aathvaan Vachan; 13:00 - Indian Idol 4; 13:30 - Sujata; 14:00 - Meet Mila De Rabba; 14:30 - Hum Ladkiyan; 15:00 - Aathvaan Vachan; 15:30 - Indian Idol 4; 16:00 - Babul Ka Aangann; 16:30 - Sujata; 17:00 - Meet Mila

De Rabba; 17:30 - Aathvaan Vachan; 18:00 - Hum Ladkiyan; 18:30 - Babul Ka Aangann; 19:00 - Jai Hanuman; 19:30 - Sujata; 20:00 - Meet Mila De Rabba; 20:30 - Hum Ladkiyan; 21:00 - Aathvaan Vachan; 21:30 - Babul Ka Aangann; 22:00 - Sujata; 22:30 - Comedy Circus; 23:00 - Indian Idol 4; 00:00 - Telebrands; 00:30 - Teleshopping; 01:00 - Sujata; 01:30 - Comedy Circus; 02:00 - Babul Ka Aangann; 02:30 - Aathvaan Vachan; 03:00 - Hum Ladkiyan; 03:30 - Meet Mila De Rabba; 04:00 - Devi; 04:30 - Jai Hanuman; 05:00 - Babul Ka Aangann; 05:30 - Aathvaan Vachan

05:50 - Shore Ditch; 07:30 - Infomercial; 08:00 - Ambush Bay; 10:30 - Edward Scissor Hands; 13:00 - Big Business; 15:00 - Mighty Aphrodite; 17:00 - Hollywoods 10 Best; 17:30 - The Motorcycle Diaries; 20:15 - Epk; 20:30 - Alex And Emma; 22:30 -

When A Man Loves A Woman; 01:15 - Intermission; 02:45 - Basic; 04:15 - Modigliani

06:00 - Madhur Jaffrey’s Flavours Of India; 06:30 - Dream Hotels; 07:00 - Food Paradise; 08:00 - Honeymoon Adventures; 08:30 - Getaway 2006; 09:00 -

Uttaranchal; 09:30 - Feast India; 10:00 - Innertainment; 10:30 - Body And Soul; 11:00 - Amazing Vacation Homes; 11:30 - Superhomes 2; 12:00 - American Chopper; 13:00 - Cooking It; 13:30 - Take Home Chef 2; 14:00 - Finest Hotels In The World; 14:30 - Indian Rendezvous; 15:00 - Getaway 2006; 15:30 - Hotel By The Bay; 16:00 - Food Paradise; 17:00 - American Chopper; 18:00 - Ballroom Bootcamp; 19:00 - Cruiseline; 20:00 - Great Hotels Iii; 20:30 - Cocktail Kings; 21:00 - Jet Set; 22:00 - America The Wright Way; 23:00 - Finest And Luxurious; 00:00 - Miami Ink 3; 01:00 - Jet Set; 02:00 - Honeymoon Adventures; 02:30 - Getaway 2006; 03:00 - Made To Order 3; 03:30 - Kylie Kwong: My China; 04:00 - Innertainment; 04:30 - Body And Soul; 05:00 - Monster House

06:00 - Global Tele Mall; 07:00 - Body And Soul ; 07:30 - Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai; 08:00 - Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai; 08:30 - Instant Khichdi; 09:00 - Yatra (Travel) ; 09:30 - Yatra; 10:00 - Jai Ganga Mai ; 11:00 - Ssshhhh Phir Koi Hai; 12:00 -

Ssshhhh Phir Koi Hai; 13:00 - The Great Indian Laughter Challenge Iv; 14:00 - The Great Indian Laughter Challenge Iv; 15:00 - Movie; 18:30 - Mile Jab Hum Tum; 19:00 - The Great Indian Laughter Challenge; 19:30 - The Great Indian Laughter Challenge; 20:00 - Movie; 23:30 - MIle Jab Hum Tum; 00:00 - Siddhanth; 01:00 - Tony B Show; 01:30 - Ankhiyon Ke Jharokhon Se; 02:30 - Dill Mill Gayye; 03:00 - Mile Jab Hum Tum; 03:30 - The Great Indian Laughter Challenge Iv; 04:30 - Dill Mill Gayye; 05:00 - Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai; 05:30 - Mum Tum Aur Hum

Oscar-winning South African-born actress Charlize Theron was named a United Nations messenger of peace on Friday, with a special focus

on ending violence against women. Messen-gers of peace, of which there will now be 10,

are celebrities

mainly from the fields of film, music, litera-ture and sport who are charged with promot-ing UN activities and ideals through public appearances and media contacts. Theron, 33, won an Academy Award for her role in the 2003 movie "Monster," in which she played serial killer Aileen Wuornos, who came from a background of violence and abuse and was executed in Florida in 2002. In the 2005 film, "North Country" she played a woman who fights back against sexual harassment. She

has been in dramas like "The Cider House Rules," thrillers such as "The Italian Job"

and the special effects filled "AEon Flux."Theron, named by Esquire magazine

last year as its "Sexiest Woman Alive," has also been involved in charitable causes such as putting mobile health clinics in rural areas of her native South Africa where access to care is limited. She had her own experience of domestic vio-lence at the age of 15 when her mother fatally shot her alcoholic father as he threatened the family in a drunken rage. Designating her a messenger of

peace, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, "You have used your voice,

compassion and special relationship with the public to create a better world."

The other messengers of peace are actors George Clooney and Michael Douglas, mu-

sicians Daniel Barenboim, Midori Goto and Yo-Yo Ma, authors Paulo Coelho

and Elie Wiesel, equestrian Prin-cess Haya Bint al-Hussein and naturalist Jane Goodall.

'The Love of My Life'

Svelte star Jessica Alba didn't look like the typical new mom at the Keep A Child Alive 5th Annual Black Ball Thursday, but all she

could talk about was her 5-month-old daughter, Honor Marie. "Everything is cute, everything is fun," the actress told PEOPLE, "including the explosive diar-rhea – the best ever."

Alba says that life with Honor Marie has brought her and husband Cash Warren closer. "It brings family together. It brings friends together. It makes every decision that you make that much more important." The next milestone in Honor's life: her first word. "I think she accidentally says 'Mama' when she's crying," says Alba. "But I don't know if it is on purpose yet."

So is Honor sleeping through the night? "It depends on what you think sleeping through the night is," says Alba. "She gets a few bottles a night, yes. But she doesn't wake up and want to hang out." Despite her life as a busy new mom, Alba has found time to get back in shape. "I worked out – not for hours, but I definitely had to work out. And I ate, not a lot of sweets and not a lot of cream. I kept a pretty simple organic diet, which I do now anyway." All of which puts Alba in a happy place. "She's the love of my life," says Alba. "The love is profound. She gives everything more meaning."

John Mayer was having a good time on the red carpet at Alicia Keys' An-nual Keep a Child Alive Black Ball Thursday night. Must be because

somebody's got his back. He started off the night by playfully grabbing the microphone of a reporter from the Tyra Banks Show to announce his own "talk show is going to be called John!" And while the singer may be joking about his next career move, he had some serious words about girlfriend Jennifer Aniston. "It's really nice to have somebody in life have your back," Mayer told PEOPLE. "That girl knows me ... so whether I go to bed alone or not, to have somebody who knows you in this world, that's a really nice thing."

So is there any chance that Mayer will fol-low in Aniston's footsteps and star on a televi-sion show? "There are rumors," Mayer admit-ted. "I'm going to keep them rumors for the time being. I want everything to be as baked as possible before it comes out of the oven." If Mayer were to have a show, he said, "it would be nice to go back to a form of entertainment that doesn't involve judging and criticizing. I'd like to entertain people with their phones down. It's time to watch TV and be entertained by great artists without having to have a say in it."

Entertain he did! Mayer got into a friendly bidding war with Queen Latifah over a lithograph during a live auction at the benefit. Fortunately, the charity was the big winner. There was an identical lithograph available so each star paid $100,000.

Nicole Kidman has ad-mitted she 'touches wood' every day in the hope that her second

marriage will last. The Oscar-win-ning actress has a four-month-old daughter with country music star Keith Urban, who two-timed her with a 23-year-old model before their June 2006 wedding. Now Kidman, 41, says she is wary of tak-ing their relationship for granted and that Urban endures a gruel-ling travel schedule to be with her as she is away filming so much.

During the filming of her new £100million blockbuster, Australia, which premieres in Sydney next week, the singer interrupted his US tour to fly back and forth to the outback to see her. Kidman, in an interview with USA Today, said: 'We're both willing to move mountains to make it work and, with that, you still touch wood. 'You commit to it and say, "Whatever we can do that's humanly possible, we're go-ing to do." And that's it.

'I don't take any of it for grant-ed. To have love again is a beauti-ful thing.' Kidman was devastated when first husband Tom Cruise

Daniel Craig has wnamed the ‘perfect’ man to replace him as James Bond – Prince Harry. The actor, who met the young Royal at the premiere of

Quantum Of Solace, said: ‘I think Prince Har-ry would make a fantastic James Bond. He’s suave, and just a little bit dangerous. ‘Like Bond, he is unpredictable and would be a per-fect Bond. He’s got everything it takes.’

Craig, 40, revealed how the 24-year-old sol-dier Prince made a cheeky crack on the red car-pet in Leicester Square. Harry told the star, who had his arm in a sling after injuring his shoul-der filming: ‘What the hell happened to you? Tough day in the office?’ The Prince later joked to reporters that Craig isn’t even his favourite 007. He said: ‘There’s only one Bond, and that’s Sean Connery.’ Quantum Of Solace opened in America this weekend and is predicted to rake in £30million there. It has so far taken £100mil-lion at the box office worldwide.

‘Prince Harry’s the perfect 007’

Jennifer Aniston ‘Knows Me’

“I touch wood every day that my marriage will survive”dumped her in 2001 after 11 years of marriage. Friends say Cruise's high-profile romance with Katie Holmes has continued to cast a shadow over Kidman's attempts to rebuild her life.

Holmes gave birth to daugh-ter Suri in April 2006, and she and Cruise are the primary carers for the children he adopted with Kid-man - Isabella, 15, and Connor, 13. They address Holmes as 'mum', and Kidman has admitted: 'They call me "Nicole", which I hate.' Af-ter she finished filming Australia, Kidman retreated to the farm out-side Nashville, Tennessee, where she lives with Urban.

The birth in July of their daughter, Sunday Rose, brought her huge joy - but just four weeks later she flew back to Australia for reshoots. Amanda Wyatt, the model with whom Urban cheated before his wedding, believes the constant separation could threat-en the marriage. She said: 'I feel sorry for Nicole. Keith cheated on her repeatedly with me. He hates to be alone - he needs somebody with him the whole time. 'I hope their marriage works but leopards don't change their spots.'

US actress Lindsay Lohan, left, and disc jockey Samantha Ronson, center, shop at the Colette shop in Paris, Saturday, November 15. (AP Photo)

Charlize named ‘UN Messenger of Peace’

One of the NSACS Naga Idol 3.08 fi nalists enthralling the audience at the grand fi nale at the Town Hall, Mokokchung, on November 15 last. (Morung Photo)

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SHANGHAI, NOVEM-BER 16(AP): Third-ranked Novak Djokovic claimed the Masters Cup with a 6-1, 7-5 win over Russia's Nikolay Davydenko in Sunday's fi-nal to end a six-month title drought. After Davydenko netted a serve return on match point, Djokovic re-peatedly pumped both fists before throwing two rackets, his wristbands and shirt into the crowd. He went over to his family and coach, and they held a group hug, jump-ing several times together in joy. It was the Serb's first tournament victory since he won the Rome Masters in May and left him just 10 points behind Roger Feder-er in the men's rankings.

Overtaking the Swiss star will be no easy feat since Djokovic will have to defend his titles early in the year at the Australian Open and In-dian Wells. World No. 1 Ra-fael Nadal has a substantial lead, although he is nursing a sore knee that kept him away from Shanghai. Djokovic, who said he was exhausted after needing nearly three hours to beat Gilles Simon in Saturday's semifinals, was sharp from the start. He won the first five games, allowing Davydenko only six points.

While the fans in packed Qi Zhong stadium clearly fa-vored Djokovic, they roared when Davydenko finally got on the board to pull within 5-1. Djokovic had to fend off double break-point in the next game before finish-ing off the set with a deep backhand crosscourt that Davydenko couldn't handle. Djokovic, who failed to win a set in three matches during

Djokovic lifts Masters Cup

Novak Djokovic of Serbia raises his championship trophy during an awarding ceremony for the 2008 Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai, China on November 16. Djokovic beat Nikolay Davydenko of Russia 6-1, 7-5 in their fi nal. (AP Photo)his debut last year at the sea-son-ending event, broke for a 2-1 lead in the second set, leaping high as he pumped

his fist.Davydenko saved two

match points while serving at 3-5. Djokovic, serving for

the match, smashed an ace to save one break-point at 15-40, but showed some nerves as he followed with a double-

fault to hand the game to Davydenko. Serving at 5-5, the Russian returned the favor, netting a forehand on

AKD sports meet held

DIMAPUR, NOVEMBER 16 (MExN): The Annual Sports Meet of Angami Krotho Delhi (AKD) concluded successfully with much excitement on November 13 at the Sports Ground of Kirori Mal College, University of Delhi. Events like Basketball, Volleyball, Football and Tug were played between the North and the South team. A friendly Football Match and Tug of war was also played against the Eastern Nagaland Students’ Union Delhi (ENSUD). The day saw the talents of the youngsters in various fields and also relationships being build up and strengthened, stated a release received from the AKD.

The AKD has also thanked the ENSUD for their par-ticipation and also all those who actively participated for the success of the sports meet.

Ravel Club offi ce dedicatedDIMAPUR, NOVEMBER 16 (MExN): The office of the Ravel Club was dedicated on November 16, by Pfürovi, pastor of the Toulazou Angami Baptist Church at Toula-zou Tenyimi village, Dimapur.

The function was attended by Khriehutuo Tsira, coach, State Athletics, Mintu Sinha, manager of Spark Cricket Club. Atikho Mao invoked God’s blessings and Neito Kapfo declared rules and regulations. The club consists of 29 members and 11 office bearers. The of-fice bearers are Atikho Mao as manager, Esie Nqouri as president and Neito Kapfo as general secretary. This was stated in a press note issued by the general secre-tary of the club.

Rev.Dr.N.Ricky Medom, Pastor NCF Praying for the Team

Gerrard ruled out of England-Germany game

Artang Youth Association, the runners-up football team of the recently concluded Mokokc-hung District Football Association Trophy 2008, today visited Dr.Imkongliba Memorial Hospi-tal, Mokokchung. They presented goodwill gifts to about a hundred patients.

Capello denies fi xing Beckham Milan moveMILAN, NOVEMBER 16 (REUTERS): England coach Fabio Capello has de-nied fixing up David Beck-ham's three-month loan move to AC Milan.

Speculation in Italy has been rife that the former Mi-lan coach had asked Rosson-eri chief executive Adriano Galliani to take the Los An-geles Galaxy midfielder so he could stay fit and in con-tention for England during the U.S. close season.

Asked what part he had played in the loan, Capello told Sunday's Gazzetta Sporti-va: "None. Galliani asked me my opinion on Beckham. I told him that he is a good player and a good person.

"Galliani spoke to me after having decided to take Beckham, not before." How-ever, Capello thinks the Jan-uary move will be positive

for the 33-year-old, who was omitted for this Wednesday's friendly in Germany.

"I don't change my meth-ods. Those who aren't playing don't join the national team," the Italian said. "If Galaxy had reached the playoffs, he would have been called up. He is a good player, I am sure he will play at Milan."

England failed to reach Euro 2008 but have won four World Cup qualifiers out of four since Capello took over. He thinks his side are well-prepared for another crack at Germany, having famously won 5-1 in Munich in 2001.

"I believe my players are ready for a match of this level after the successes in qualifi-cation for South Africa 2010. Now the players have faith in their ability and poten-tial," he said.

break-point. Djokovic didn't squander the opportunity, easily holding to finish off the match.

Earlier, Daniel Nestor of Canada and Serbia's Nenad Zimonjic beat Americans Bob and Mike Bryan 7-6 (3), 6-2 to win the doubles title and clinch the year-end ATP No. 1 ranking. The Bryan twins, who were playing for their third title here, held the top ranking and won Olympic bronze at Beijing in August. "With all the points out there, having it hinge on ... a few points at the end of the season is pret-ty amazing," Bob Bryan said. "I guess we've got to tip our hat to them. They played a great tournament and had a great year. We look forward to battling it out next year for the same thing."

Nestor and Zimonjic have now beaten the Ameri-cans three straight times and went through the tourna-ment here undefeated, tak-ing all three of their round-robin matches and the semifinals. "To win the Mas-ters Cup - for me for the first time, for Danny to defend the title - to play against the Bryans, who have been dom-inating the doubles the last four, five years, and to fight for No. 1 spot, you couldn't ask for more as an athlete," said Zimonjic, who won the mixed doubles title at the Australian Open in January with China's Sun Tiantian.

This was the final year for the Masters Cup in Shang-hai. It will move to London next year, while Shanghai will get the Masters 1,000 event that has been held in Hamburg.

LIVERPOOL, NOVEM-BER 16 (AP): Steven Ger-rard has been ruled out of England's friendly against Germany in Berlin on Wednesday because of a torn leg muscle.

Liverpool said the mid-fielder picked up the injury in the club's 2-0 victory at Bolton on Saturday. "A scan this morning has confirmed a tear in the adductor mag-nus muscle in his right leg,

and he is expected to be out between seven to 10 days," said Liverpool spokesman Ian Cotton.

The absence of Gerrard is another blow for England coach Fabio Capello, who has also lost Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney and defender Rio Ferdinand to injuries. Chelsea's Joe and Ashley Cole and Wigan striker Emile Heskey had already been ruled out.

Chelsea also said that team captain and centerback John Terry is to have a scan on a foot injury to determine whether he can go to Berlin.

Although Capello plans to use the friendly to experi-ment with backup players, the Italian does not want to lose the continuity that has brought England four World Cup qualifying victories in its first four games. Now he looks certain to face the

Germans without half of his regular lineup.

He has also dropped David Beckham because he hasn't played competitive football since the Los An-geles Galaxy failed to reach the Major League Soccer playoffs.

The England players are due to train at Arsenal's London Colney ground on Monday before flying out to Germany on Tuesday.

Indian batsmen, from left, Gautam Ganbhir, Murali Vijay and Virender Sehwag look on during a practice session on the eve of the second one-day international cricket match between India and England in Indore on November 16. (AP Photo)