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The Morung ExpressNow is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children

Dimapur VOL. III ISSUE 308 www.morungexpress.com Thursday, November 6, 2008 12 pages Rs. 3

“ - Martin Luther King Jr

A Daily Publication of Morung for Indigenous Affairs & JustPeace

”

Historic Wind Of Change

Mr. President

WASHINGTON, NOVEMBER 5 (AFP): Barack Obama swept to an historic victory as America's first black president, but pleaded for time to heal and transform the superpow-er as he faced up Wednesday to the task of forging his promised change. "At this defining moment, change has come to America," Obama told 240,000 euphoric supporters, many in tears, at a rally late Tuesday after defeating Republican John McCain.

Obama, 47, will be inaugurated as the 44th US president on January 20, and inherit an economy mired in financial crisis, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and a nuclear showdown

with Iran. "Even as we celebrate to-night, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime, two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century," said Obama.

"The road ahead will be long, our climb will be steep, we may not get there in one year or even one term, but America -- I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there," Obama said in his home town of Chicago. "I promise you -- we as a people will get there." Senator Obama solidified traditional Democratic states and cut deep into the Republi-can territory which his rival needed to

control to win the White House.Democrats also made huge

strides in Congress, boosting their majority in the Senate by five seats, with results still pending in four states, and by 20 seats in the lower House of Representatives. Obama's win was greeted with euphoria across the United States and reverberated around the world. New York's Times Square exploded in joy and a scream-ing crowd gathered outside the White House. In Kenya, where Obama's fa-ther was born, President Mwai Kiba-ki declared a national holiday.

McCain, the 72-year-old Arizona senator, was gracious in defeat after a

bitter protracted campaign, acknowl-edging that the election of his rival was a moment to cherish for African Americans. "The American people have spoken, and they have spoken clearly," he said. "Though we fell short, the failure is mine, not yours," he told a crowd of supporters in Phoe-nix in his home state of Arizona. Pres-ident George W. Bush who has been in control through eight turbulent years also congratulated Obama.

"What an awesome night for you, your family and your support-ers. Laura and I called to congratu-late you and your good bride," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino

quoted the president as saying in a phone call to Obama. Obama's inau-guration will complete a stunning as-cent to the pinnacle of US and global politics from national obscurity just four years ago. Forty-five years after civil rights icon Martin Luther King laid out his "dream" of racial equality, Obama's election broke new barriers and may have helped heal some of the moral wounds left by slavery and the US civil war. When he launched his campaign on a chilly day in Illinois in February 2007, Obama forged a man-tra of change which powered him through the longest, most costly US presidential campaign in history.

World leaders hail Obama's 'brilliant' victoryPARIS, NOVEMBER 5 (AFP): World leaders hailed Barack Obama's triumph Wednesday in the US presidential election as the dawn of a new era and called for the global superpower to change the way it does business. Obama parties were staged in capitals around the world. A national holiday was declared in Kenya -- where Obama's Kenyan father was born -- to welcome the first black US president.

In Sierra Leone, six newborn babies were even named after the president-elect. President Mwai Kibaki, who has declared a national holiday on Thursday to mark Obama's victory, said: "This is a momentous day not only in the history of the United States of America, but also for us in Ke-nya." Pope Benedict XVI sent a telegram of con-gratulations to Obama to hail the "historic occa-sion". French President Nicolas Sarkozy extended his "warmest congratulations" to the 47-year-old Democratic senator. "By choosing you, the Ameri-can people have chosen change, openness and op-timism," added Sarkozy.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown wel-comed the victory as an historic moment. "Ba-rack Obama ran an inspirational campaign, energizing politics with his progressive values and his vision for the future," he said. China's President Hu Jintao said in a written message: "In a new historical era, I look forward to... taking our bilateral relationship of constructive coop-eration to a new level." Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso pledged to work with the new US leader to strengthen relations.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Obama's victory was a landmark for equality 45 years after Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech. "Today what America has done is turn that dream into a reality," Rudd told reporters. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said in a statement: "This is a time for a renewed com-mitment between Europe and the United States of America." Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a vociferous critic of the Bush administration, said in a statement: We are convinced that the time has come to establish new relations between our coun-tries and with our region, on a basis of respect of sovereignty, equality and true cooperation."

‘All can dream of better world’JOHANNESBURG, NOVEMBER 5 (AFP): South Africa’s iconic first black leader Nelson Mandela said on Wednesday that Barack Obama’s election as US president showed that anybody could dream to change the world. “Your victory has demonstrated that no person anywhere in the world should not dare to dream of wanting to change the world for a better place,” Mandela wrote in a letter to Obama, America’s first black president-elect.

The 90-year-old Mandela applauded Obama’s commitment to support global peace and security and trusted that combating poverty and disease would become the mission of his presidency. “We wish you strength and fortitude in the challenging days and years that lie ahead,” said Mandela. “We are sure you will ultimately achieve your dream (of) making the United States of America a full partner in a community of nations committed to peace and prosperity for all.”

Mandela led South Africa’s first democratic government from 1994 to 1999 after being impris-oned by apartheid’s white minority rule for 27 years. In July, Obama paid tribute to Mandela’s belief that “we do not have to accept the world as it is” in a video message marking the elder states-man’s 90th birthday. “When I visited South Africa a few years ago, I had a chance to go to Robben Island and stand in your cell, and I reflected on your courage, your foresight and conviction, and on your fundamental belief that we do not have to accept the world as it is; that we can remake the world as it should be,” Obama said.

(Left): Students at the University of Sydney react to the announcement that Barack Obama had won the election for the U.S. Presidency in Sydney on Wednesday. (Right): Kenyans in Kisumu celebrate the victory of president-elect Barack Obama in the American presidential election. Obama’s Kenyan relatives and Africans across the continent celebrated his victory Wednesday, staying up all night or waking before dawn to cheer in America’s first black president. (AP Photo)

Reconciliation Process Explore Peace Ways

Turning Challenges To Opportunities: The Forum for Naga Reconciliation and the various Naga political groups met for the fifth time on November 4-5 in Dimapur, during which they “agreed to pursue cre-atively in overcoming hurdles and obstacles towards reconciliation.”

DIMAPUR, NOVEMBER 5 (MExN): The fifth meeting of the Naga “political groups” (factions) and the Forum for Naga Reconciliation was held November 4-5 in Dimapur. The meeting explored ways to create options and find ways to strengthen the ongoing ‘journey of common hope’, the forum for Naga reconciliation today said.

“In their continued commitment to reconcili-ation, 35 participants comprising the Forum for Naga Reconciliation and the various Naga politi-cal groups agreed to pursue creatively in overcom-ing hurdles and obstacles towards reconciliation” a statement from the forum today informed. Ac-cording to the forum, in the recent meeting unlike the past ones, the Forum for Naga Reconciliation and the Naga underground factions, the partici-pants, spent overnight together in one house, en-gaging in formal and informal discussions and partaking in devotion and prayers.

Recognizing that the realization of Naga rights is the shared yearning that bonds all Naga people, the forum said, the participants upheld Naga recon-ciliation as a process to address and overcome vari-ous political differences, to safeguard and strength-en the historical and political rights of the Nagas.

“The Forum for Naga Reconciliation ex-presses our profound gratitude to the leaders of the Naga political groups (factions) for exercising

their utmost restraint despite difficult circum-stances; and for heeding to the Naga people’s call for reconciliation, unity and peace. The forum implores the leaders of the Naga political groups

to continue exploring all possible non-violent op-tions to resolve differences and to building a con-sensus on a common hope” the forum appealed.

continued on page3

Al NgullieDIMAPUR | NOVEMBER 5

IN ALL indignity and a tragedy so pitiable, Dima-pur missed one of the most rousing rock music perfor-mances in the recent times, and two terrifyingly quality rock bands any moshhead would have cut his hair for – Diatribe and OFF (aka Original Fire Factor). If the two bands were watched – and listened to – the night of November 5 when they per-formed at DDSC, a mind or two would have returned home a true convert.

For a city that prides itself to be the core of the rock scene in the state, it’s a screaming shame that “mu-sic lovers” flock to excruciat-ingly mindless, stupid and imbecile soundtrack-singing “sensations”, while the truly quality performers are ig-

Diatribe takes ‘Off’ to beat system

nored like Biblical leapers. This time Diatribe and

OFF were left holding the fort. But the barely-about-200 fans that assembled at the ground, and Diatribe and OFF, had the time of their lives – minus rowdy Broken-Nagamese-English

warbling drunks and unruly teenage kids. Just plain fun headmoshing and a union of a truly commendable metal camaraderie the show turned out to be. And perhaps the birth of a potential new qual-ity Naga ‘star’ metal group.

continued on page 3

CMYK

CMYK

6 November 2008Thursday2 Dimapur The Morung ExpressLOCAL

MEx FileTetso College BoDs, parents to meet on Nov 8DIMAPUR, NOVEMBER 5 (MExN): All concerned members of the Board of Directors of Tetso College (governing body) are notified of an emergency meet-ing to be held on November 8 at 2:00 pm at the college premises. The meeting has been called in view of the request made by the All Nagaland College Students’ Union to appraise the college fee structure. Requesting all to attend the meeting, Dr. P S Lorin, Principal and Member Secretary, has also informed that the Board members desired to meet all parents and legal guard-ians of the hostellers of Tetso College along with their wards at 3:00 pm the same day. The Principal requested that all the parents of the said hostellers take this privi-lege and meet the board members at the interactive ses-sion to be held at the College auditorium.

HSSLC failed candidates informedMOKOKCHUNG, NOVEMBER 5 (DIPR): The Cen-tre Superintendent of Mok-A and Mok-B Centres in Mokokchung has notified that all the HSSLC failed can-didates of Mok-A and Mok-B, who intend to appear for the ensuing HSSLC exam 2009, are to bring all necessary documents on or before November 10, 2008, for filling up the individual Application Forms. The following list of documents is to be produced: Marksheet and Admit Card in original, 2 (two) passport size (black & white) photographs recently taken (not instant), and examina-tion fee of Rs.550 (for Arts) and Rs.650 (for Science).

Mass social work in Dmr on Nov 7DIMAPUR, NOVEMBER 5 (MExN): The Dimapur Municipal Council has notified on the desire of the Chief Minister to hold a ‘mass social work’ in Dimapur town, on November 7 from 7 am onwards. In this regard, DMC Deputy Chairperson D P Angami, has requested all heads of department and its employees, business es-tablishments and residents of Dimapur to participate in the ‘social work’ and ensure their “full effort and co-operation to make the programme a success.”

PYO warns against sale of alcohol after 7 pm DIMAPUR, NOVEMBER 5 (MExN): The Peraciezie Youth Organisation has informed that it had come to their knowledge that some pan shops and other shops on the roadside, in and around Peraciezie colony, have been pur-portedly selling alcohol even after 7 pm or as late as 10 pm. This, the youth organisation stated in a release, was de-spite their issuing an order not to sell after 7 pm, “for main-taining serenity and cordial atmosphere in the colony.” PYO President Sonhie Khruomo, therefore, reminded all in concern, particularly the owners of pan shops and other shops including wine sellers, that “henceforth, any-one found selling alcohol after the stipulated time will be sternly dealt with in accordance to the standing rules of the PYO and Peraciezie Welfare Board.”

DIMAPUR, NOVEMBER 5 (MExN): The Eastern Naga Students’ Federation has slammed the news article sub-mitted by Kepelhoutuo Chusi in the name of All Nagaland School Teachers’ Association (ANSTA) on October 29, 2008, saying that it was detrimental towards the ENSF. The Fed-eration denounced the ANSTA president and his association’s wisdom and suggested that they understand the ground reality within the ENPO juris-diction “before you poke the other nose.” The ENSF further reminded to “let’s mind one’s own business.”

Considering the said article as uncalled for and very injuri-ous to their demands, the ENSF added that the association should realise that ENSF was not de-manding anything from the AN-STA but from the government to provide 10 years’ relaxation from the purview of the New Teachers Recruitment policy for only six tribes of the four districts. There-fore, it asked the association not

to be a stumbling block with their advice to the education de-partment against fulfilling the ENSF’s demand and misleading the citizens without understand-ing the cause.

The press statement by ENSF’s general secretary, P Methna Konyak, lashed out that the ANSTA has no authority like the education department and the state government to ap-peal to the ENSF in any form while it was demanding for rights and equal opportunities in the employment sector. Stat-ing that presidents are the ones who lead any organisation, the federation stated that he must have indepth knowledge of the pros and cons of the problem before passing any comments or making press statements. The general secretary made it clear that the ENSF demands would not be compromised since it was a clear and genu-ine problem, and added that it needed no contradiction from any group or individual.

The release further appealed

to the president to come and serve in one of the interior vil-lages under the jurisdiction of ENPO as a qualified teacher with requisite qualification, while also demanding that he visit all the village schools within the four districts of Tuensang, Mon, Kiphire and Longleng, to “wit-ness the actual facts and prob-lems” before saying anything to contradict their demands.

“The ENSF do not need advice from you and your asso-ciation because the Federation have better advisors to advise us in any matter with all their wisdom,” stated the release while also adding that any ad-vice from “advance person is not applicable for us as it does not match our views.”

The federation also ex-plained that it was not demand-ing the said relaxation for the entire Naga populace, but for just the six tribes under its um-brella and added that it was up to the government to consider the whole Naga population. They, therefore, asked the AN-

STA to direct their demand to the government if they did not want any relaxation, and not to the ENSF. The ENSF also stat-ed that the ANSTA and its of-fice bearers should realise and analyse properly the long-term policy and be realistic about the practical problems faced by the Nagas in general and not live in a dream world.

It went on to make it clear to everyone that the ENSF appreci-ates the New Teachers Recruit-ment Policy framed by the edu-cation department and conveyed its desire to push this policy into practice for better and quality education. However, at the same time, it asked for a relaxation of 10 years exclusively for the six tribes of ENSF so that the people of Eastern Nagaland might also “catch up with the advance peo-ple” in obtaining the requisite professional qualification within the said period. The release final-ly concluded with emphasis that the ENSF would never compro-mise on anything with regard to their demand for relaxation.

ENSF hits out at ANSTA

DIMAPUR, NOVEMBER 5 (MExN): Amidst a charged at-mosphere during the conclud-ing programme of the three-day Women Conference & Seminar at IMC hall, Deputy Commissioner Dimapur, Maong Aier added to the high spirits by blowing a ‘Sho-far’ and displaying a shawl from Israel. Gifted to him by a Prophet from Israel, the DC said the sym-bolism of the shawl is “healing.”

Exhorting the women and other dignitaries present to keep the spirit of God alive, Aier urged them to touch Christ. Touch Jesus and be transformed, he said, urg-ing them not to be challenged by doubts or be discouraged by evils of the world. Reminding people that Jesus, as long as He lived on earth, walked with “hurting people” and not with “religious people,” the DC said Jesus is the friend of hurting people. To ‘hurt-ing people affected by broken homes, divorces and other domes-tic problems’, the DC challenged them to “take back what Satan has stolen” from them.

Maong Aier also delivered a strong message of receiving anointing, healing, while pray-

DIMAPUR, NOVEMBER 5 (MExN): The war of words be-tween the Nagaland Pradesh Con-gress Committee (NPCC) and the DAN Government continued with the NPCC now jeering the con-struction of the DGP Nagaland’s official residence at PR Hill. In a press release, the Congress Com-mittee, in a sarcastic tone, con-veyed appreciation to the DAN Government for constructing the palatial building at the cost of Rs.2.40 crores irrespective of the state’s crumbling infrastructure.

Reminding all that Race Course, the official residence of the Prime Minister of India, is an “ordinary house” like any other, the NPCC questioned whether the DGP required such a palatial and majestic residential building. “Is DGP really need a majestic building of 4 storey residence?” demanded the committee, adding that the DAN Government consid-ered it a big achievement while ig-noring the other infrastructure de-

velopment of police departments in the state.

The NPCC pointed out that the majority of the policemen and of-ficers in the capital and the district, including SDPO Kohima, stayed in rented houses due to non-avail-ability of departmental quarters and non-repair of the few avail-able quarters. Despite all these, the government had constructed a 4-s-toried building for one officer, the NPCC ‘congratulated’, but ques-tioned the housing problems of other general policemen who were “working day and night for public security at the risk of their own lives by living in pathetic conditions.” It also asked whether the DAN Gov-ernment was going to construct a palatial and majestic building for the Chief Secretary’s residence.

The NPCC further needled the issue saying that if DAN Gov-ernment could offer crores of ru-pees for one official residence, what about the common problems like road, drinking water, hospital

buildings, school building, educat-ed unemployed, human develop-ment resources, etc. Repeating the Home Minister’s words during the building’s inauguration that he was proud of the building, the NPCC stated that if the DAN Government was proud of the construction of one official residence quarter at the capital like it was a great achieve-ment, there was not much that the Naga public could expect from the DAN Government.

The press release issued by Nil-lo Rengma, also noting the Chief Secretary Lalhuma’s remark that the new building would qualify as one of the best DGP residences in the country, asked the Chief Secre-tary to enlighten them as to when the competition for construction of ZDGP residence building in the country had started, and also how many official residence buildings in Nagaland were qualified in the country. The NPCC asked for these facts to be made known to the public “for future corrective measures.”

No ‘ordinary house’, DGP’s residence draws flak

DIMAPUR, NOVEMBER 5 (MExN): An inter-college Sports Meet-cum-Music Feast, which is being or-ganised by the All Nagaland College Students’ Union (ANCSU) supported by the Nagaland State AIDS Con-trol Society (NSACS), kick-started today at the Patkai Christian College, Dimapur campus, with Commission-er and Secretary of Higher Education, F P Solo as the chief guest. Altogether 873 student delegates from twenty-eight different col-leges are participating in the meet which will conclude on November 7. Sports and mu-sic competition, a seminar on HIV AIDS, and volun-tary blood donation by the

DIMAPUR, NOVEMBER 5 (MExN): The Army Engineers under the aegis of HQ 3 Corps have again come forward to help the locals of Nagaland in their endeavour by dedicating an ad-vance technology Computer Training Centre to the students of Government High School, Bhandari village.

During the inauguration function held at the Government

High School, Bhandari village in Wokha district, an advance technology Computer Training Centre constructed by the 60 Engineer Regiment for train-ing of students was dedicated to the High School on November 1 by Col. V Richard Blaize, CO 41 Assam Rifles. Yilansan Odjjul, Chairman of village council of Bhandari village, also graced the occasion.

Stating that the project was highly appreciated by the school’s management and students, Maj Anil Tripathi of the Media & PI Cell, HQ 3 Corps, stated that the Computer Training Centre would further reinforce the bond of friendship while keeping the stu-dents abreast of the latest happen-ings in the field of IT and instil con-fidence in them to compete with their peers in other walks of life.

BHANDARI, NOVEMBER 5 (DIPR): The departmental coordination meeting for Bhandari sub-division was held on No-vember 4 at the ADC’s office chambers. ADC Bhandari, Ahola Those, who chaired the meeting, informed the officers on the next monthly DPDB meeting to be held on November 12, 2008, at the office of ADC Bhandari, and requested their coop-eration for the scheduled meeting.

The meeting discussed the upgradation of Government Middle School at Akuk to Government High School. The ADC direct-ed DIS Bhandari to submit the matter dur-ing the next DPDB meeting for approval. The members discussed important matters for all the departments in Bhandari to be put

up in the next DPDB meeting for approval. The house deliberated in detail on the supply of electricity/power, for which the ADC sug-gested that the Power department charge the 33 KV direct line to Bhandari from Niropen (Wokha) power station at the earliest. The meeting also resolved and directed all offices in Bhandari town to conduct social work on November 6 in their office premises.

During the meeting, the ADC in-formed the house that the 31 Assam Ri-fles had donated 7 sets of computers for community use in Bhandari, for which the ADC expressed happiness and grati-tude to the Commandant, Col Richard, and his battalion for their concern for the development of Bhandari.

‘Make participation, not winning, a priority’

ANCSU sports meet underwayparticipants will mark the three-day meet and feast.

“It (the inter college meet) has given us an oppor-tunity to discover the talent and gift that is in us to use it to the best of our ability,” said the ANCSU president, O Wati Jamir, at the inau-gural program today. He ex-pressed his strong hope that the state government and the Nagaland University would also give more importance to sports so that the young talents are motivated and groomed for the best use.

F P Solo, while speak-ing at the inaugural pro-gramme, complimented the

ANCSU for organising the meet and expressed his hope that the ANCSU would take the sports meet and music feast to greater heights in the days to come. Lament-ing that there were many young sportspersons whose talents could not be tapped due to lack of infrastruc-ture, Solo expressed his optimism that the ANCSU sports meet would provide a platform for those talents to excel in the national and international levels.

While dwelling on the need for discipline and hard work, Solo also exhorted the students not to be too con-

cerned with winning or los-ing but instead focus on the importance and significance of participation in the com-petitions. “Participation should be the spirit, and win-ning should not be our prior-ity,” the chief guest asserted.

The president of the Naga Students’ Federation, Imchatoba Imchen also challenged the students to come out of and rise above “the narrow tribal and politi-cal lines” and together build a platform for the Naga na-tion into a strong and proud one. “The narrow politi-cal interest propagated has done enough damage and

we have never succeeded to live and come together as a one strong and understand-ing Naga nation,” said Im-chatoba.

In this regard, the NSF president expressed his be-lief that music and sports can bring people and soci-ety together in oneness and unity since the medium of sports and music bears a universal language which can be understood by one and all and can be respond-ed equally with a giving heart. “The age has come for today’s generation to imper-atively imbibe in the spirit, the culture of determina-

tion, hard work, discipline and perseverance. It is these qualities that determine who and what you and I are going to be tomorrow,” the NSF president added.

The Principal of Patkai Christian College, Judson Rungsung, also delivered a short speech while Grace Lalchhanhimi of PCC pre-sented a special song titled ‘You raise me up’. A seminar on HIV/AIDS on the theme ‘Youth & AIDS’ was also scheduled for 5 pm, with Dr Temsu of Civil Hospital Di-mapur as the resource per-son. Later, the first football match between St. Joseph College and Mt. Tiyi Col-lege was kicked off by the chief guest.

Army civic action brings cheer to Bhandari Village

Col. V Richard Blaize, CO 41 AR, with others at the inauguration of the Computer Training Centre at Government High School, Bhandari village.

Maong Aier displays symbolism of healing

Deputy Commissioner Maong Aier blows a ‘Shofar’ at the closing programme of the Women Confer-ence & Seminar.

ing for the destruction of “witch-craft” that was destroying the generation of today. Another highlight of the programme was

a group song by the Sumi Baptist Church, Dimapur. The conclud-ing programme was also attended by top bureaucrats, politicians,

church leaders and Kaisa Rio, who was also the guest speaker during the inaugural programme of the Women Seminar.

Foundation laid for reducing menace of insurgency

DIMAPUR, NOVEMBER 5 (MExN): A 15-member Myanmar Army (MA) delegation led by Brig Gen Tin Maung Ohn visited Headquarter 3 Corps Rangapahar on November 4 and 5. Dur-ing the meeting with the Indian Army delegation headed by Maj Gen Shakti Urung, GOC, 57 Mtn Div, various issues were discussed including cross border insurgency, arms smuggling and border management. The delegation leader of the MA also called on Maj Gen B K Chengapa, AVSM, Of-ficiating 3 Corps. The meeting laid a foundation for better understanding, promoting of friendly relations between two neighbors and would also help in reducing the menace of insurgency in joint efforts, stated a release. The liaison meeting was held to review and discuss issues of mutual inter-est between the two armies. The MA delegation will also be visiting Shillong. The next meeting between the two sides will be held in Myanmar.

ADC Bhandari deliberates on Power department

EHSS calls coordination meet DIMAPUR, NOVEMBER 5 (MExN): A coordination meeting between the Alumni Union of Eden Higher Secondary School, Dimapur (AUEHSS), and the staff of EHSS will be held on November 8 next at 10 am at the school’s chapel hall. The meeting has been called to discuss matters related to the ensuing silver jubilee. A press note is-sued by its principal has informed that all alumni of EHSS and the staff are attend the meeting positively.

Thursday6 November 2008 Dimapur 3The Morung Express LOCAL

FELICITATIONThe Merangkong Student’s Union Kohima (MSUK) has felicitated.(1)Tiamenla Phom (2) Limadangit Walling (Nokpu) (3) Imnasangba Jamir.For their success in the recent declare NPSC results as Veterinary Assist. Surgeon under Veterinary & Animal Husbandry, SDO (Civil) under Works & Housing Dept. and Lecturer (Chemistry) under Information Technology & Technical Edu.Dept respectively. The Union further wishes them a bright and prosperous future.

Silver JubileeThe Mount Hermon School (1983-2008),

Kohima is celebrating its Silver Jubilee on the 7th of Nov’08 at the school premises.

Requesting all its alumni and well wishers to come and be a part of this celebration.

Time : 10:00 AMChief Guest : Dr. Shürhozelie, Minister Urban Development and Higher Education

Teachers Wanted1. Post for Secondary level: Only graduate and experienced teachers to apply. (a) For Mathematics (b) English2. Post for Pre-Primary & Primary level: Only lady teachers with qualifi cation

10+2 and above to apply.

Self hand-written application with ‘resume’ should reach to the School Offi ce by 13th November 2008.

Interview in the School Premises on 15th November 2008 from 10:00 A.M onwards

Principal,St. Mary’s Montessori & High SchoolLatika Complex, Nyamo Lotha Road,

Dimapur- 797112, Nagaland.

GOVERNMENT OF NAGALAND

DIRECTORATE OF HIGHER EDUCATIONNAGALAND: KOHIMA

NATIONAL EDUCATION DAY (FROM 2008)The Central Government vide its Resolution No.17-35/2004-

PN-I dated 11th September 2008 of the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India has decided to observe 11th (Eleventh) November, the birthday of MAULANA ABUL KALAM AZAD, the great freedom fi ghter, EMINENT EDUCATIONIST, and the fi rst Union Minister of Education as the NATIONAL EDUCATION DAY in a befi tting manner, every year (commencing from 2008) throughout the country WITHOUT declaring it as a holiday. A letter to this effect vide D.O.No.17-9/2008-PN-I dt. New Delhi the 30th September 2008 has been received by the Govt. of Nagaland.

Following the above directive, the Department of Higher Education, Govt of Nagaland, vide its letter No.HE/MHRD/4-2/2006 dt 23.10.2008, is directing the Principals of all the Government Colleges and Private Colleges in Nagaland to observe the 11th (Eleventh) November 2008 as the fi rst NATIONAL EDUCATION DAY (and to be observed every year) in organizing Seminars, Symposia, Essay-writing, Elocution Competition, Workshops and Rallies with banners, cards and slogans on the importance of education and the nation’s commitment to all aspects of education.

The letters received in this connection are being sent by POST.

A.M. TOSHI JAMIR, Director, Higher Education Nagaland Dt.5.11.08

V.J’s Coaching CentreD.C Court Road, Duncan Dimapur

Offers Coaching for the Repeaters ofClass X/XII Arts/XII Sc/XII ComAdmission starts for Regular students those

Who got through in selection test (Class X New Course)

Hostel attached for both Boys & Girls (Separately)For details contact the offi ce or call:

03862-234272/9436600530

DIMAPUR, NOVEMBER 5 (MExN): R. Paphino, chair-man, media cell, NPCC in a release hit out at the NPF for questioning his integrity. The volley of spat continues this time Paphino hitting out at the NPF claiming that “in an idealistic sense” he is “more regional then many so-called veteran regional NPF leaders”. Paphino had earlier raised the issue of pitiable road conditions of the state which according to him was his duty as a member of the Opposition party-“to act as a watch dog of the people” and therefore, it is within the pur-view of the norms to highlight the “commission and omis-sion, lapses, irregularities committed” by the Govern-

ment as any other Opposition parties elsewhere.

Paphino maintained that the concern over the roads in the state was raised in the in-terest of the people, not in his personal capacity but as “Op-position Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) collectively”. He regretted that the NPF party had “stooped so low by deliberately diverting the issue of ‘Road Jumble’ to settle score with an individual which is indeed, unfortunate and unbecoming on the part of the NPF party”.

Not denying being a part of NPF until the “fag end of 2007” He alleged that, “for reason(s) best known to few NPF leaders, I was ig-nored and sidelined and this

strange attitudes left me with no space to sit or stand in the Regional NPF party.” He added, “Hence, the harsh po-litical decision had to be tak-en sans fun or pleasure. Even today, in an idealistic sense, I think, I am more regional then many so-called veteran regional NPF leaders.”

“As far as my stint with regional party is concerned, the depth cannot be known by the writer, NPF Associate Press Secretary. But, certain-ly he knows vaguely how I’d worked with them. Facts can-not be decried. Therefore, the NPF party cannot question my integrity and credibility,” Paphino asserted.

Paphino maintained that he has always worked in the

best interest of the people and in “true parliamentary democratic spirit” declar-ing that he has always ap-proached his “assigned job without prejudice”. He also alleged that NPF “rewards the pseudo workers and pun-ishes the sincere and devoted workers” as was in his case.

Calling the charges lev-eled by the NPF against him “wild and baseless” and as a “desperate and deviative (sic) ploy”, Paphino urged upon the NPF to have a “wider and broader outlook” on issues and problems of the state. Paphino fur-ther opined “Perhaps, they might have better agenda then fuming at individuals who speaks the truths”.

Paphino alleges NPF “rewards pseudo workers”

DIMAPUR, NOVEMBER 5 (MExN): Three NSCN (K) cadres were arrested today toward the Kohima Cathe-dral area when a suspiciously moving white Bolero (NL 10-3685) was intercepted by a MVPC of the 26 Assam Rifles. AR personnel recov-ered one AK-56 rifle and 57 live rounds of ammunition from the three; they were lat-er handed over to the South Police Station, Kohima. This was stated in a release by Maj. Pallab Chodhury, PRO, IGAR (N)

Assam Rifles have of late increased vigil within the state and round the clock watch is being maintained in all civilian inhabited ar-eas to prevent any move-ment of armed cadres trying to vitiate peace and cause harassment to local popu-

AR Apprehend 3 NSCN(K) Cadres

The AK-56 rifl e and several live rounds of ammunition, in this image released to the media, recovered from the three NSCN (K) cadres apprehended by the 26 AR in Kohima on November 5.

KOHIMA, NOVEMBER 5 (DIPR): The Police New Reserve Kyong Ekhung, Phesama, will be celebrat-ing Tokhu Emong festival at Tennis Court, Police Re-serve Kohima, on November 7. Superintendent of PHQ (MT Branch) and also Ad-visor to NRKE, R T Ezung, will narrate the significance of the Lotha Tokhu Emong while Thungdemo Tungoe and L Nremo Shitiri will exhort the gathering. Mark-ing the occasion of the fes-tival of festivals of Kyong, traditional songs by DIG colony and MT colony and various other items mod-ern song and dance will be performed. Elsewhere, resi-dents of Agri-Forest and

Electrical colony of the lotha community will celebrate Tokhu Emong at the offi-cial residence compound of Commissioner & Secretary, Transport & Communica-tion, Mhathung Kithan.

Retired Director, Health & Family Welfare, Dr. L.M. Murry will speak on the sig-nificance of Tokhu Emong while Joint Director Ag-riculture, E.H. Lotha will exhort the gathering. Other highlights of the programme will include cultural songs by Science College Stu-dents, Modern/Oldies song by Robert Khuvung and entertainment items by the youth, Meiwebogic Women Wing and humour by Ren-demo Shitio.

Chizokho Vero

Chozuba | November 5

C H I E F M I N I S T E R Neiphiu Rio today made a fervent appeal to the people to ‘create a peaceful atmo-sphere’ to enable the govern-ment to carry out the devel-opmental activities without any hindrance.

Inaugurating the ADC HQ for Chozuba here this morning, Rio said develop-ment would be able to sail in the ‘right perspective’ when there is peace. In this, he called urged for a united effort to maintain peace and access to development being build by the government.

He said the government is contemplating a quality control board and urged

Rio appeals for ‘peaceful atmosphere’to focus on quality control in undertaking any type of construction works in the state. Rio reiterated that the absence of quality con-trol will invite liability in-stead of creating an asset for the state.

The chief minister also inaugurated a trauma cen-tre and a rostrum at the local ground. Both the minister for Health & Family Wel-fare Kuzholuzo Nienu and Parliamentary Secretary for Social Welfare Chotisuh Sazo ‘appreciated’ Rio for undertaking various devel-opmental activities in the state. They also urged the people to extend coopera-tion to the government and continue to enjoy the fruits of development.

Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio along with dignitaries after unveiling the monolith of the new ADC HQ at Chozuba, under Phek district.

lace. AR has issued instruc-tions to all its Units to deal sternly with erring factional cadres found violating the cease fire ground rules laid down by GOI.

To thwart any attempt

by factions to penetrate the security dragnet laid by the AR, there will be increase in patrolling, laying of MVCP’s, frisking of suspected vehicles and personnel will continue through out, AR informed.

ANMLTA GM rescheduled KOHIMA, NOVEMBER 5 (MExN): The general meet-ing of the All Nagaland Medical Laboratory Technicians Association that was earlier scheduled to be held on No-vember 7 at NHAK has been postponed to November 21 due to unavoidable circumstances. Informing this in a joint release issued by the acting president and general secretary of the association requested all Laboratory Tech-nicians under Health & Family Welfare Department to bear with the inconveniences.

IADVL conference at ZHRCDIMAPUR, NOVEMBER 5 (MExN): The 19th annual conference of the Indian Association of Dermatologists, Venereologists and Leprologists (IADVL), Northeast branch, under the theme ‘Dawning of Dermatology in Nagaland’, will be held at the Zion Hospital and Research Centre, from November 8 to 9 next. Guest speakers from premier institutes like AIIMS, New Delhi, and IPGMER, Kolkata, will deliver lectures on important topics in the field of Dermatology. This was stated in a press note is-sued by Dr. Mhabemo Ovung, Organising Secretary.

Tokhu Emong festival celebration on Nov 7

Narcotic cell seize banned drugsDIMAPUR, NOVEMBER 5 (MExN): The office of the commissioner of excise informed that in the period extend-ing October 23 to November 3, 2008, the excise narcotic cell duty party under the command of Chuba, AIE, along with personnel Senlamo, Akong, Khumeng, Yekuto, Abel, Hetovi, Yanglo, Ajungla have arrested four persons involved in four different drug cases and seized a total of 2505 capsules of s/proxyvon and 150 tablets of Nitrosun. In a separate incident, the excise narcotic cell enforcement staff led by Tokuho, AIE, Remasangba, Sutsung, Pangjung, Ikiho, Shikaho, Ndonsi, Nemao, Paokhotang and Merila arrested one person for il-legal possession of 112 capsules of s/proxyvon. The accused have subsequently been booked under the relevant sections of Drugs & Cosmetic Act, 1940 and have been handed over to judicial custody.

Agitation at Longching on Nov 8DIMAPUR, NOVEMBER 5 (MExN): The Longching Vil-lage Council has called for an agitation on November 8 to ap-praise the government on the issue of an EAC post. Hongnao Konyak, the GB of Longching village, has informed that no vehicle movement will be allowed during the agitation pe-riod, which will begin from the morning of November 8.

Reconciliation Process Explore Peace Ways From page 1

The two-day meeting which concluded today was the fifth occasion that the Naga factions were meeting together in Nagaland since the month of September. Unlike past meet-ings, the forum informed that “the participants spent the overnight together in one house, engaging in formal and in-formal discussions and partaking in devotion and prayer.”

NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 5 (THE TELEGRAPH): A central inquiry has found Nagaland Univer-sity guilty of financial irregularities and negligence, setting the stage for action against its top officials and triggering introspection on Delhi’s policy of showering the Northeast with apex educational institutions. Union education minister Arjun Singh has put his seal of approval on the fact-finding committee’s report, top government officials said.

The human resource develop-ment ministry now plans to approach President Pratibha Patil, the Visitor to Nagaland University, for disciplin-ary action against university officials named in the report, possibly as early as next week, an official from the de-partment of higher education said. Nagaland University vice-chancellor K. Kannan, registrar T. Vihienuo and controller of examinations Tongpang Ao have been named in the report, he

added.“The central fact-finding com-

mittee has largely corroborated charges levelled by the Nagaland University Teacher’s Association earlier this year. We are ready to press ahead with action against the accused,” he added. Kannan is the second vice-chancellor at the uni-versity to be embroiled in allega-tions of corruption. His predecessor G.D. Sharma had left amid a battery of such allegations. Speaking to The Telegraph from Kohima, Kannan called the allegations against him a conspiracy by “those who want to run a parallel administration.”

The report details how Rs 43 crore from an allocated amount of Rs 45 crore was allegedly spent on building infrastructure on campus-es that lack proper approach routes, rendering the construction largely useless. It questions why Kannan, as the vice-chancellor, did not intervene

to ensure proper use of the funds. As Visitor, Patil has the final say on any action to be taken based on the re-port. Sources said the President is expected to endorse strong punish-ment against the offenders as the in-quiry was set up under her order. The HRD ministry was initially not keen on investigating the allegations.

HRD ministry officials said the controversy surrounding Nagaland University was a pointer to an in-creasingly generic pattern involving universities in the Northeast — an absence of Delhi’s writ over them. Some officials at Manipur Univer-sity, for instance, face allegations of funnelling money meant for labora-tory equipment to militant outfits in that state, an HRD ministry source said.

“The truth is that managing a central university in the Northeast, especially in states like Nagaland and Manipur, is extremely hard.

The Centre started new universities in troubled areas like the Northeast too hurriedly,” an official said, argu-ing for a “gradual approach” to set-ting up central institutions in such areas. “Simply, our policy was: start a slew of institutes in the Northeast and then let them handle it. That may need a re-look,” another official said.

Unlike other parts of the country, each northeastern state today has a central university. Sikkim Univer-sity was created last year. The Ra-jiv Gandhi University in Itanagar and Tripura University in Agartala were also converted into central uni-versities last year. The Centre took over Manipur University in 2005, while Mizoram University was set up as a central university in 2000. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has promised Assam a “world-class university” and IIM Shillong started classes this year.

Nagaland University under the scanner

From page 1For those who came in

late, Diatribe (a progres-sive melodic death metal outfit) and OFF (protest rock) strutted home as first and second-placed winners respectively at the recently concluded Nagaland Music Safari. Still fresh dusty from their safari hangover, OFF and Diatribe took the stage and conveniently left the au-dience believing that the ear-lier three-hour delay was no more than a Sunday school rhyme. And boy, did they en-joy the show!Diatribe

Main act, Diatribe from Kohima took the reins after OFF. How can you not love Diatribe? This band reminds so much of Sweden’s progres-sive melodic death metal band Meshuggah – huge, huge guitar tones, sharp-to-the-tip-morbid but lyrical fi-nesse, angry harmonies and liberal obsession with the in-tricate technical sensibilities so natural with core metal music – yet still so progres-sive. Or at least that was the covers choice of their set. And you should have been there to happily nod that they are truly the most amazing Naga metal band in the recent times. Prediction: if they’d be still around the next two years, Diatribe will be to NE (or India), what Rock Ma-chine (not that stupid ‘Indus Creed’ avatar) was to India. No finger-crossing here.

Diatribe’s singer (or in this case, snarler) Kalong was a 200-kilograms of charisma, cool and lotsa snarl. This guy truly deserves to be a metal frontman – painfully sponta-neous, articulate and natural and a livewire when connect-ing with the crowd. Diatribe roused much dandruff with a number (Dimmu Bogir’s ‘Arghat?’ I’ve forgotten the ti-tle in my own midst of head-

banging). The band truly left the small young crowd wasted but hungry for more. Happy in a shorn-punk haircut, the bandit Kalong seemed a familiar face – (is he the guy from Dark Ven-geance, the death metal band from down south?). Diatribe promised a set of white-hot metal slab from Children of Bodom to Lamp of God and surely did they deliver! Per-haps the tightest metal band from Nagaland ever. Phew.

The band was reinforced even more by the ‘exper-tise’ of weather-beaten, old wardogs like Yanger Long-kumer – probably one of the cleanest guitar pickers this side of the Earth. This war-dog began cutting his teeth way back the late 90’s with local band Oleanders and now is a known face in Ko-hima. There to back Yanger and Khalong’s liberal death onslaught was another ban-dit Abijah (ex-Native Colors and Vanadium? Now I’m confused), drummer Temsu and pianist Lipok. After a frighteningly delicious slab of core metal, Diatribe did an original “Hardships” an ear-blistering slab of an-gry rhythm so familiar with WWF’s slamshots and neck-holds. “Hardships” basically has no rhythmic intonations as expected from a core met-al offering but it certainly has lots of melodic sensibili-ties in the line of Soilwork or even the progressive core band Elenium.

Diatribe’s future looks extremely bright – when you have blinding instrumental talent, eye-popping show-manship and blinking cha-risma to boot – your future certainly must be bright. The only metal band to have emerged from the last five years from Nagaland, that’s worth what they are destined for. Stardom. Trust me. If they are still there, that is.

Original Fire Factor (OFF)

Earlier, Original Fire Factor took to stage as the opening act to inform the gathered throng of hun-gry faithfuls what it really means to shout at the system: the band woke the evening with an angry rendition of “Wake Up”, the cult number from pioneer American “rap rock” group Rage Against the Machine. Dreadlocked Lui Tzudir looked every inch RATM’s vocalist Zack de la Rocha himself. Temjen Jamir contributed his sonic anger with his own brand of turbo fuzz to fit Tzudir’s agi-tated prancing while bassist Akum Aier and drummer Meren Ozukum made sure their vocalist stays put on the stage and not dive into the head-banging (but decent young people mind you!) lot. A very tight band.

A string of RATM num-bers followed and all the more glorious for the already “awake” fans. After raging on against the system, OFF of-fered an original, “My Land” – a frighteningly mosh-wor-thy piece of rock. A beautiful guitar-driven narrative that has Lui sharing his angst in a monologue “lemme tell you about my land, lemme tell you about me people”, and pop goes the rocket for the mosh-ers in the pit. OFF wound up the act with “No Way” anoth-er sunny, happy but “mosh-able” original which the band described as “sorta bubble-gum”. Bubblegum angst or not, the fans chewed up “No Way” happily.

The show – with the the-matic motivation to ‘make a difference, be the change’ – was organized by League 4 Change with active support from Car Mania, MetalGear, Encore, Movie Galore, Basu Damani, Crescendo RNTCP and The Morung Express as the Media partner.

Diatribe takes ‘Off’ to beat system

CMYK

CMYK

Thursday6 November 2008 4 Dimapur The Morung Express

DAILY CROSS WORDLEISURE

DOWN

Answers to CROSSWORD #1144

Across: 1. Plunge, 3. Spring, 6. Riyadh, 7. Gibson, 8. Testy, 10. Swelter, 14. Hippo-cratic, 17. Allowed, 19. Suede, 20. Deluge, 21. Kopeck, 22.Modest, 23. Frozen.

Down:1. Pirate, 2 Giddy, 4. Prise, 5. Gantry, 9. Swill, 11. Worn, 12 Twine, 13. Pole, 15. Random, 16. Beckon, 18. Wages, 19. Scour.

CROSSWORD # 1145The Morung Express number gameS U D O K U

Sudoku # 1128

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 #1127

W O R D S E A R C H

BUSINESS

CURRENCY EXCHANGECURRENCY NOTES BUY(Rs) SELL(Rs)US Dollars 47.67 50.11Sterling Pound 74.76 78.79Hong Kong Dollar 5.31 7.27Japanese Yen /1000 470.72 520.17Malaysian Ringtt 12.26 15.19Singapore Dollar 30.14 34.95Thai Bhat / 100 133.40 144.90U.A.E. Dirhams 12.21 14.27Euro 59.87 62.95

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

CHEVROLET CAR PRICE LISTCAR 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 401,639U-VA 1.2 LS 444,184U-VA 1.2 LT 483,975SRV 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

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

25 26

AdamsandlerAmyadamsBradpittCamerondiazColesprouseDanielradcliffeDrakebellDrewbarrymoreDylansprouseEmmawatsonGefforeyrushGeorgelopezHarrisonfordJackblackJamesmardsen

JerryseinfieldJimcarreyJimmyfallonJohnnydeppJoshpeckKieraknightlyMikemyersMileycyrusNicholascageOrlandobloomPatrickdempseyPaulgiamattiReesewitherspoonSimoncowellZacefron

2. Elizabeth - - - cosmetic queen (5)3. Serving table (7)4. Complete (6)6. I sail on [anang] (7)7. The Sorcerer’s - - - symphonic poem (10)8. Tread (4)11. Impeccable (10)15. Dark syrup (7)17. Weird (7)18. Irrational fear (6)20. Bellow (4)22. Jazz trumpeter, - - - Davis (5)

1. Schoolbag (7)5. Entreaty (4)9. Adapt (6)10. Vagrant (5)12. Artist who painted Olympia (5)13. Fencing thrust (7) 14. Blood vessel (6)16. Small fruit-basket (6) 19. Dig up (7)21. Comedian (5)23. Capital of Ghana (5)24. Package (6) 25. Always (4)26. West Indian song (7)

Z A C E F R O N G E F F O R E Y R U S H

E S E L V R N E S D R A M S E M A J Z U

P U X M K O W I T T A M A I G L U A P J

O R I L C E F F I L C D A R L E I N A D

L Y Z J G E S U O R P S E L O C O D Y R

E C O O M O O L B O D N A L R O A L C E

G Y E S P M E D K C I R T A P M T Y I W

R E S H B Z O I M C Q Z N S S H E D J B

O L M P O A F P H V L O R A G R Y R O A

E I A E P N K O M L L E N I R L J O H R

G M D C I I L I E L H D N A A L A F N R

M J A K M A K W A T L K C N S E C N N Y

H R Y X S E O F I E A M S D K B K O Y M

U F M C M C Y W R R I P Q Z J E B S D O

A V A Y N M E V E J R Z I W B K L I E R

G G E O M S H I T O L G D P D A A R P E

E R M I E Z K B U B E Q F E L R C R P A

S I J E R R Y S E I N F I E L D K A A R

S G R L O V E M M A W A T S O N Y H A F

T T I P D A R B B C A M E R O N D I A Z

Fin Secy meets heads of foreign, private banksNEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 5 (PTI): Finance Secretary Arun Ramanathan today held a meet-ing with top executives of private and foreign banks to review liquidity situation and interest rate scenario following a series of steps taken by the Reserve Bank to improve cash flow in the system.

The meeting comes a day after Finance Minis-ter P Chidambaram met heads of PSU banks and got an assurance from Indian Banks Association (IBA) that banks would consider interest rate cut and come up with some decisions on the price at which credit will be delivered to different sectors. Following the meeting many public sector banks announced their decision to cut lending rates by up to 75 basis points.

Finance Secretary’s meeting, among others, was attended by RBI Deputy Governor V Leelad-har, ICICI Bank Joint Managing Director Chan-da Kochhar, J & K Bank chief Haseeb A Drabu, HDFC Bank managing director Aditya Puri and representatives of Axis Bank, HSBC, Citigroup and Duetsche Bank. Other senior officials of the finance ministry were also present at the meeting.

The Finance Minister, after meeting heads of PSU banks yesterday, had told reporters that Finance Secretary will hold a meeting with the private and foreign banks to discuss various is-sues concerning the banking sector. During the past one month, RBI took a series of steps for improving liquidity situation, which include sharp reduction in the mandatory deposit that banks keep with the central bank and short-term lending (repo) rate at which banks borrow from the RBI.

NEW DELHI, NOVEM-BER 5 (AGENCIES): Even as the debate over safety and essentiality of genetically modified (GM) foods con-tinues, Indian research insti-tutes are trying to genetical-ly modify some high-value medicinal herbs that are an integral part of ayurvedic medicine, a recent report of pro-environment group Greenpeace has said.

The report, “Genetic Gamble,” said Kerala Ag-ricultural University was trying to genetically modi-fy medicinal herbs Jivanti and Ashwagandha to study changes in their metabolic properties. Similarly, Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotech-nology, also based in Kerala, is conducting studies on metabolic engineering of Brahmi and Creat, the re-

port says. All these herbs are commonly used in ayurvedic medicines. Scientists as-sociated with these institu-tions agreed that these pro-grammes were being carried out but said they did not pose any environmental or health hazard.

The research on Brahmi — a plant whose roots, leaves and stalks are known for me-dicinal properties — is to find ways to improve the presence of bioactive or medicinally important substances in the plant. The scientists expect to substantially increase the yield of the plants through such interventions. Bhrami is known to cure several neu-rological, cardiac, cognitive and respiratory disorders. The report says transgenic Brahmi plants have been successfully tested in green-

house conditions and will be tested under field conditions after regulatory approvals. “We have completed the lab-level study to see if the Brahmi plant can produce more medicinally active substances. It is not ready for open field trials yet and we do not have the mandate to do so. Further studies will be conducted only after regula-tory approvals,” said a Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotech-nology scientist.

Kerala Agricultural Uni-versity scientists said they did not conduct transgenic research, which alters the basic structure of the plant organism. “We are only pro-ducing a large number of roots that contain medici-nally important products. This is not conventional genetic modification and is

meant only for lab-level test-ing. So there is no question of safety hazards”, said R Kes-havachandran, project in-vestigator for ashwagandha research in Kerala Agricul-tural University. “Given the scarcity of traditional medi-cine plants, it is desirable to think of better alternatives. But introducing ayurvedic medicines manufactured from GM plants is still at a conceptual level. A lot of de-bate and discussion should take place before regulatory approvals can be given for such products”, said Jacob Titus, former drug control-ler (Ayurveda) of Kerala.

Not all experts in tradi-tional medicine share the enthusiasm. “Synergy is the key in any traditional herb-al medicine. Genetic engi-neering tries to improve a

particular active molecule by altering the plant’s taste, action, active principle, therapeutic efficacy, nutri-tional benefits, pro-biotic activity and a lot more. Al-tering the components will ruin the transgenic plants’ efficacy as well as, through outcrossing and gene trans-fer, the plants’ unique and innumerable curative abili-ties”, said G Sivaraman, member, National Siddha Pharmacopoeia Committee. Meanwhile, the anti-genetic modification groups feel the move is against the principle of ayurveda and could affect India’s plans to take ayurve-da global. “Ethical public health requires convincing data on benefits and safety of GM foods and medicinal plants for human health.

‘India working on GM herbs’

NEW DELHI, NOVEM-BER 5 (PTI): US carmak-er Ford on Wednesday launched the new petrol and diesel variant of its entry-level sedan -- Ikon -- in India, priced at Rs 4.59 lakh and Rs 5.19 lakh (ex-showroom), Delhi, respectively.

"The new Ford Ikon con-tinues to be a leader in its segment and caters to cus-tomers with a combination of superior fuel efficiency and improved engine per-formance," Ford India Presi-

dent Michael Boneham said. The diesel variant of the new Ikon would come with a 1.4 litre DuraTorq TDCi en-gine, while the petrol variant would be available with a 1.3 litre RoCam engine.

About the ongoing global financial turmoil, Boneham said: "The current world economy is creating some tough times for car business as a total. Credit crunch and the lack of confidence among consumers and banks have created short-term impact."

He, however, said the compa-ny's announced 500-million dollar investment plan in India for the next few years would continue with a new engine plant and a car-man-ufacturing facility in Chen-nai. "Ford is confident that we will be a big part here. Our capacity-enhancement programme and the small-car project will continue as announced earlier," he said. The company would launch a new small car in India in 2010, he added.

Ford launches entry-level sedan ‘Ikon’ in India

Apple announced that the em-ployee credited with being the "father of the iPod" is stepping down from his post at the icon-ic California company. Apple said iPod division vice presi-dent Tony Fadell and his wife, Danielle Lambert, who is vice president of the company's hu-man resources department, are "reducing their roles" to "devote more time to their young fam-ily."

While the spotlight rou-tinely shines on Apple's notori-ously involved chief executive Steve Jobs, Fadell is said to be the one behind the idea for iPod MP3 players that rocketed to

global success and revived the company's fortunes. "Tony and Dani have each made important contributions to Apple over the past eight years," Jobs said in a release on Tuesday. "We're sorry to see Dani go, and are looking forward to working with Tony in his new capacity." Lambert is to leave Apple at the end of the year and Fadell is to become an advi-sor to Jobs. IBM executive Mark Papermaster has been hired to replace Fadell. Papermaster's former employer is challenging the move on the grounds Paper-master is contractually restrict-ed from working for a competi-tor.

British law firms outsource to India in a big wayLONDON, NOVEMBER 5 (AGENCIES): Britain's big-gest law firms are outsourc-ing jobs related to convey-ancing, accident claims and due diligence investigations to India to cut costs. Thou-sands of Indian lawyers and fresh law graduates have re-portedly been employed by British firms for a fraction of the cost if the work were done in Britain.

Clifford Chance, reput-

ed to be world's largest law firm, has set up its own off-shore centre in New Delhi. Eversheds, another leading UK law firm, has confirmed it was making use of India-based legal resource centres. Several other legal compa-nies have expressed an in-terest in outsourcing hun-dreds of millions of pounds worth of high-volume work, a report in 'The Independent' said. "The often negative im-

age of call-centres is increas-ingly being replaced by more accurate perceptions of the quality of legal work avail-able from professionals in India," it said.

Nearly 80,000 English-speaking law graduates pass out from Indian institutions every year. Young Indian lawyers are considered very competent and also Indian legal system is largely based on English law. CPA Global,

a legal process outsourcing company (LPO), said that more than 30 law firms and company legal departments were in talks to use its legal support base in India, which employs 450 graduates and lawyers.

CPA is one of the biggest providers of LPO services in India and counts Microsoft among its clients. The down-ward pressure on legal costs in the economic downturn

had forced the once-con-servative legal profession to consider radical means for delivering legal services to clients who wanted fees to be fixed, rather than billed at an hourly rate, the LPO company said. Indian firms have responded by offering US and UK law firms litiga-tion support and compliance work at around 100 different legal outsourcing centres, the report said.

Asians uneasy over Obama trade stanceBEIJING, NOVEMBER 5 (AP): Asian businesspeople and analysts expressed hope Wednesday that U.S. Pres-ident-elect Barack Obama will tackle the financial cri-sis with fresh vigor, but they also expressed anxiety over whether Washington will embrace more protectionist trade measures.

“The financial crisis has a great impact on the world. If Obama can reverse the tide, then certainly it’s good,” said Liao Yi, deputy general man-ager of CHiNT Electronics Group, one of China’s biggest producers of power-transmis-sion equipment.

Most Asian stock markets rose Wednesday, partly on re-lief that the next U.S. leader was chosen, lifting months of uncertainty. Japan’s Nik-kei index jumped 4.5 percent to 9,521.24 and Hong Kong’s benchmark rose 3.2 percent to 14,840.16.

Still, Kazuo Mizuno, chief economist at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities Co. in Tokyo, cautioned that a new presi-dent could not deliver a quick fix for the U.S. financial melt-down, which is dragging on global growth.

“Changing the president is not going to be enough to

save the American economy,” Mizuno said. “Even the presi-dent is not going to be able to change America without help from the world.”

Many expressed unease about Obama’s pledges to vigorously enforce trade laws and criticism of a pending trade pact with South Korea that he says fails to address an imbalance in auto shipments. The Democrats, traditionally viewed as more protectionist on trade than Republicans, now control the presidency and Congress.

Obama has said he is in favor of free trade agreements if they benefit the United States. He has criticized the one with South Korea, say-ing it does not adequately address an imbalance in auto trade. South Korean auto-makers sold 772,482 vehicles in the United States in 2007, while the U.S. sold 6,235 in South Korea, according to industry statistics.

“He appears to be a pro-tectionist,” said Chea Mony, president of the Free Trade Union of Workers in Cam-bodia, which has an export-driven textile industry. “I am quite concerned about that because most of our clothing products are ex-

ported to America.”In an Oct. 24 letter to

the U.S. National Council of Textile Organizations, Obama pledged “strong en-forcement” of trade rem-edy laws, which can include added tariffs on imports that are deemed to hurt Ameri-can businesses. Obama said he would include labor and environmental standards in free trade agreements - a measure that many in Asia view as a possible pretext to shield U.S. companies from foreign competition.

Obama also has said he would pressure China to end what he calls the manipula-tion of its exchange-rate sys-tem. Washington and other trading partners say Beijing’s currency, the yuan, is kept un-dervalued, giving its export-ers an unfair price advantage and adding to China’s multi-billion-dollar trade surplus.

Frank Gong, a Hong Kong-based managing direc-tor for JP Morgan Securities, warned of possible conflict if Democrats in Congress try to support American businesses and workers by curbing Asian imports.

“That could mean trade friction and the risk of rising protectionism,” Gong said.

Indian outsourcing com-panies - accused by critics of stealing U.S. jobs - have also expressed some apprehen-sions about an Obama victo-ry. They have been hit by the global financial meltdown because they depend heav-ily on U.S. financial services firms for a big chunk of their revenue.

The potential for a pro-tectionist backlash is “some-thing we have to factor in,” S. Ramadorai, chief executive of Tata Consultancy Services, India’s largest software ser-vices provider, said shortly before the election. “It’s something that comes up ev-ery time during elections.”

Other analysts said that despite Obama’s pre-election comments, he was likely to follow the example of previ-ous U.S. presidents and take a moderate line in office to preserve important trade re-lations with Asia.

“I’m not worried about what might happen after Obama’s win,” said Qiang Yongchang, a professor at the Economy Institute at Shanghai’s Fudan Univer-sity. “He may have talked tough, but based on past ex-perience, that’s just a tool to win over voters.”

IPod’s “father” leaving Apple

Dimapur 5Thursday6 November 2008The Morung Express REGIONAL

GUWAHATI, NOVEM-BER 5 (AGENCIES): Eight years after a bomb blast shat-tered her life, 55-year-old Ruby Baruah gets strength and hope by nurturing her late husband’s dream - an English medium school in Assam’s Nalbari town.The school, 60 km from Guwa-hati, was founded by her husband Pranabesh in 1998. Pranabesh was killed in a blast triggered by the banned outfit United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) near Nalbari on Feb 27, 2000.

“After my husband’s death I was clueless as to how to support my children. Then I took over the reins of the school. I am happy that I am now managing the school well and taking care of my children as well,” said Ruby, putting up a brave face. The story is not an isolated one. It is repeated in thousands of households in the state.

According to the figures

available with the Assam Police, as many as 423 explo-sions occurred in the state between 2002 and January 2008. At least 928 civilians have been killed in these ex-plosions, mostly triggered by ULFA, added a police of-ficial. Sunita Sharma, 28, is yet to overcome the shock of losing her husband, Sagar, in last Thursday’s serial bomb blasts. Yet she has no option but to take up her husband’s vocation, carpentry.

“In order to take care of my two children, I have to work in his workshop now. I am completely distraught af-ter my husband’s death. But, as I have to look after my chil-dren, I have to carry on with my life,” a sobbing Sunita told IANS. Sagar was killed in the Ganeshguri market here, one of Thursday’s bomb blast sites. At least 81 people were killed and over 300 in-jured when 12 coordinated bombings in Guwahati and

western districts of Barpeta, Kokrajhar and Bongaigaon rocked Assam.

There is no official esti-mate about the number of women who have lost their husbands or children or-phaned in insurgency or eth-nic riots in Assam. “An esti-mated 25,000 people have been killed and hundreds more maimed for life since 1979,” said a senior Assam police official. Assam has long been a cauldron of vio-lence triggered by insurgen-cy and ethnic clashes, since the state’s first rebel group, the ULFA, was formed in 1979. Ruby Baruah rued that in spite of promises made by the government to help her financially, she has received no aid. “Initially I visited a few government of-ficials and ministers to get my dues. But nothing mate-rialised. I have lost all hope of getting any help from the government,” she said.

Wasbir Hussain, politi-cal commentator and direc-tor of the Centre for Devel-opment and Peace Studies, a Guwahati-based think-tank, in his award-winning book “Homemakers without the Men” has brought to light the plight of Assam’s terror wid-ows through real-life narra-tives. “The book, through real life stories, narrates the strug-gles of Assamese women who have lost their bread winning partners to insurgency or eth-nic strife. Through the book Hussain has brought out the pathos, trauma, struggle and challenges of these remarkable women,” said Guwahati-based sociologist Anima Guha.

“The government has to support these women and help them financially to sup-port their family. Women and children of Assam have been the most affected lot in the orgy of violence unleashed by the terrorist outfits for three decades,” said Guha.

Assam’s widows: from housewives to breadwinners

NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 5 (DNA): With the ruling Mizo National Front (MNF) fighting anti-incumbency against its 10-year rule and seeking a third con-secutive term, there is speculation about a hung assembly this time. The MNF and the Congress are the main contenders. Political analysts say the elections would be a trian-gular fight between the ruling Mizo National Front (MNF), the main opposition Congress and the new coalition, United Democratic Alli-ance (UDA), formed with the merg-er of the Mizoram People’s Confer-ence (MPC), the Zoram Nationalist Party (ZNF) and the Zoram Kuth-nathawktu Pawl (ZKP), a civic or-ganisation.

Relatively insulated from con-cerns of the heartland, local issues hold greater sway here. The state is still facing strife between differ-ent tribes with the dominant Mi-zos calling the shots. A few smaller tribes feel unprotected but have little clout to make their presence felt. The church plays a dominant role in the elections and can also be a deciding factor.

The dominant issue of earlier

days was insurgency. But now de-velopment is the main issue for the MNF government which seeks to highlight its work during its rule. During polls, local tribes also raise demand for eviction of Chakma tribals who have been settled there after their displacement from Ban-gladesh. The church, which domi-nates, also raises alcoholism as an is-sue. For the Congress, corruption in the government is the main plank.

In the 2003 assembly elections, the ruling MNF secured 21 seats and the Congress 12, while seven went to smaller parties. MNF has said it would field “clean, efficient and young popular leaders”. The MNF, which retained power on its own in 2003, has now decided to continue its ties with the MCP and forge an alliance with smaller political outfits to come back to power for the third consecutive term in the assembly polls. Fac-ing a strong anti-incumbency wave after ruling Mizoram for the past 10 years, the MNF has decided to have an electoral tie-up with the Mara Democratic Front (MDF) in south Mizoram and the Hmar Peo-ple’s Convention (HPC) in Aizawl

district.The ruling front will also con-

tinue its ties with the Mizoram Congress Party to secure the magic figure of 21 in the 40-member As-sembly. The main opposition Con-gress, headed by Lal Thanhawla, a former chief minister, has also en-tered into an electoral alliance with the Mipui Tangrual Pawl (MTP) or People’s Front. The Congress has also increased its strength by in-cluding a breakaway faction of the Mizoram Congress Party (MCP) in its fold. Analysts say this could sig-nificantly improve the prospects of the Congress in the coming poll.

Lal Thanhawla’s main handi-cap is the charge of corruption. A former legislator and MTP lead-er Bualhranga, along with Rev. Zairema had filed a PIL against him on graft charges. The case is still pending in a special court. All-India Congress president Sonia Gandhi has nominated Margaret Alva, a Congress general secretary, as the head of the 10-member Con-gress campaign committee in Miz-oram. Three Assam ministers, Hi-manta Biswa Sarma, Gautam Roy and Pradyut Bordoloi and former

Tripura Pradesh Congress presi-dent Birajit Sinha are also part of the committee. The BJP, still look-ing for a foothold in the state, has also announced that it will contest the elections.

An important factor in Mizoram is the Mizoram People’s Forum, a conglomeration of major churches and NGOs. It has not expressed support to any political formation yet. Campaigning for violence-free polls, free from militants’ involve-ment, it has also sought the coop-eration of NSCN-IM, the most in-fluential underground outfit in the northeast.

The MPF also issued poll dik-tats to political parties and how to go ahead with their campaigning and choosing candidates. The Pres-byterian Church, the largest Chris-tian church in the northeastern state with over 455,700 members, urged political parties not to nomi-nate candidates who are corrupt or indulged in immoral activities.

“The political parties are re-quested to put up candidates who have a clean image and good moral character and who refrain from so-cial evils,” said the Presbyterian

church message, read out in all the 1,086 churches in the state. It strongly discouraged door-to-door campaign “as it always leads to co-vert use of money by political par-ties, candidates and party workers to persuade electors”.

Alliances and coalition gov-ernments are not new in this tiny hill state. The first government, af-ter Mizoram attained full-fledged statehood in 1987, was formed by the MNF led by Laldenga after the Mizo Convention and the Mizo Peace Forum merged with the MNF. The Congress government in 1989 was a coalition of the party and the MNF Democrats, a break-away group of the MNF.

The Congress retained power in 1993 after forging an alliance with Brig. Sailo’s Mizoram Janata Dal (MJD). The MNF returned in power under the leadership of Zoramthanga in 1998 after forg-ing an alliance with Brig. Sailo’s party - then re-christened as Mi-zoram People’s Conference. The MNF retained power in 2003 on its own and formed a coalition with the MDF which managed to bag a single seat.

Does hung house await Mizoram?Newmai News Network

Shillong | November 5

MEGHALAYA IS now looking for rain water har-vesting in the world wet-test place, Cherrapunjee to cope with the acute wa-ter crisis during the winter months. Cherrapunjee is known as the world rainiest place and the acute water crisis during winter season prompted the Meghalaya Soil Conservation depart-ment to hold a workshop in Cherrapunjee today.

Delivering his statement today, Meghalaya chief min-ister Dr Donkupar Roy said, “With traditional practices of preserving forest eroded , it is imperative for the people to relive with those practices that can that is slowly out of picture”. Dr Donkupar Roy was vivid in describing the absurdity of Cherrapunjee as a place with heaviest rain-

fall facing acute water prob-lems. The gist of his speech is about the degrading con-sideration of the ‘sacred for-est’ that has led to depletion of forest cover.

Interestingly, as he be-moans the fast deforesta-tion in the state, Roy said, “ It is important that the soci-ety lives with the forefather tradition to understand the richness and beneficial of such forest grove.” Mean-while, the chief mininster has asked the State depart-ment concern as well as the the Central Planning Board to fund the Rs 25 crore proj-ect to conserve water in Cher-rapunjee. The workshop on rain water harvesting in the world’s wettest place came at a time when the state and central governments have taken certain initiatives to have rain water harvesting project in the state by the end of this year.

World’s Wettest place for rain harvesting

Assam Chief Minister of Assam Tarun Gogoi joins activists of the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee who staged a peace rally starting from Judges’ Field in Guwahati on November 5 against the October 30 serial bomb blasts in Assam which killed some 88 innocent people and injured several hundreds. Notably, all the people of Assam have been seen coming out in the street with similar spontaneous urge for peace after the shocking incident. (UB PHOTOS)

Newmai News Network

Imphal | November 5

IN WHAT has been alleged as medical negligence of the doctors of the Imphal’s Re-gional Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) by family members, a woman died at the hospital on Wednesday afternoon due to excessive bleeding following an opera-tion on Monday. The victim has been identified as Samu-railakpam Chanchan, 27, w/o S. Bimolchand of Nambol Naorem Mayai Leikai, Bish-nupur district presently stay-ing at Kanto Leimakhong.

Relatives of the deceased disclosed that Chanchan gave normal birth to a baby boy on Monday, November

3 at around 9:30 a.m. How-ever, due to excessive bleed-ing she was taken for opera-tion by the doctors at about 11 a.m., added the relatives. She was rushed to the opera-tion theatre by the doctors to save her life as the medicine could not increase her hae-moglobin level to control the bleeding, informed a reliable source. She was later taken to the intensive care unit (ICU) and kept under life support, added the source.

However, the lady passed away on Wednesday after-noon. Hearing of the news, family members rushed to the hospital where a mob was caused following verbal counters with the doctors. This was however calmed

down by L. Kailun, Super-intendent of Imphal West police and the forces of the Lamphel police station.

Dr. Mohen, Medical su-perintendent of RIMS de-nied any negligence from the part of the medical team at the RIMS hospital and even called upon the relatives to have a look at the post mor-tem results. Dr. Nobakishore of the hospital also denied any negligence of the medi-cal team. He instead stated the doctors even took blood from the blood banks to help the bleeding victim. The body of the victim was later taken home after certain agree-ments between the family members and the doctors, in-formed a source from RIMS.

A woman dies due to alleged negligence SHILLONG, NOVEMBER 5 (UNI): The Meghalaya Po-lice has pushed back 36 more illegal Bangladeshi migrants to Assam from the coal-rich district of Jaintia Hills, po-lice said today. With this, the number of illegal Bangladeshi migrants, who claimed them-selves to be from Assam, has risen to 293. “The 36 illegal migrants were pushed back to Assam as they claimed to be from that state,” Superinten-dent of Police (SP) MK Singh said here.

The Meghalaya police started to drive out illegal Bangladeshi migrants soon after security agencies iden-tified eleven places across the state susceptible to ter-

ror attacks. “We cannot take chances and the drive against illegal Bangladeshis will continue,” the SP said. Earlier, Chief Minister Donkupar Roy had instruct-ed the state police and the district administration to keep extra-vigil in the wake of the serial blasts in Assam that claimed over 80 lives.

Dr Roy added that not only illegal Bangladeshis but also outsiders who come to Meghalaya without prop-er identification proof would be push back to the place they claimed to have come from. “The state’s security is vital for the government and the people,” the Chief Min-ister had stated.

293 Bangladeshis deported to Assam

School children of Silver Jubilee LP School, Tezpur paying fl oral tributes to the departed souls who were killed in the recent serial bomb blasts in Assam on November 5 inside their school permises. (UB Photos)

NEW DELHI, NOVEM-BER 5 (PTI): As probe into the Assam serial blasts point-ed the needle of suspicion towards Bangladesh- based HuJI, the Centre today said the Tarun Gogoi government needed to strengthen securi-ty as “external forces” were targeting the state.

“We have told the Assam government in clear terms to strengthen security across the state as external forces are targeting the state. This was evident in the recent series of blasts,” Union Minister of State for Home Sriprakash

Jaiswal told reporters here.Jaiswal said the state gov-

ernment required to tighten security as it was clear that the recent terror attacks were car-ried out by certain “external forces” in “connivance” with some local militant outfits. Asked about the possibility of involvement of Bangladeshi immigrants in the October 30 blasts, the Minister said inves-tigation was still going on and everything would be cleared once it was completed.

“Probe is still going on. When it is completed, we will come to know whether Ban-

gladeshi immigrants were involved in it or not,” he said. Assam Police had yesterday released the sketch of a per-son suspected to be involved in the serial blasts which so far claimed 84 lives. Police said the sketch “tallied 77 per cent” with the descrip-tions provided to the artist by the witnesses and the per-son is suspected to be behind the explosion at the Deputy Commissioner’s office com-pound in Guwahati. Five more sketches of the suspects are being prepared and will be released soon, they said.

Tighten security, Centre tells AssamIMPHAL, NOVEMBER 5 (PTI): In an attempt to pop-ularise and boost the sale of high-quality orange in Ma-nipur’s Tamenglong border-ing Nagaland, a special state level orange festival would be launched on December 8 next. ‘We have completed all arrangements for holding the festival on a grand scale Tamenglong district head-quarters,’ Ramkung Pamei, convenor of media and public-ity committee of the festival.

He said main programme of the festival would be ‘or-ange queen competition, fashion show, best orange competition bamboo-made craft items.’ Official sources said oranges of different va-

rieties were grown in large number at various parts of the district including Tamen-glong headquarters, Dailong, Valo, Wairangba, Tharon, Songpram, Nungtek and others. They said the orang-es, available in the district, were of very high-quality and were in great demand.

Thousands of people from different parts of the state used to throng the district in earlier orange festival to buy oranges and those oranges left over af-ter the festival were bought by state horticulture department to make orange juice. Organ-ising committee of the festival would also organise such fes-tival at sub-divisional head-quarters of the district

TEZPUR (ASSAM), NO-VEMBER 5 (PTI): ULFA ad-visor Bhimkanta Buragohain today “denied the involve-ment” of the banned group in the deadly October 30 blasts in Assam which claimed 84 lives. “ULFA has never been in-volved in such blasts where so many people have been killed in a single day,” Buragohain told reporters outside a court here. Buragohain claimed that ULFA has no links with jehadis or any other funda-mentalist organisations.

The senior-most ULFA leader was captured by the

Royal Bhutan Army during a crackdown against the group in that country in December 2003 and has been lodged in Tezpur Central Jail after being handed over to Indian Army.

The army today deposit-ed in the court of Additional Sessions Judge of Sonitpur M Ziaul Haque ammuni-tions and cash recovered from Buragohain during the Bhutan operations.

The army deposited an AK-56, a pistol, a detona-tor, a satellite phone, several AK-56 bullets and other am-munition along with over

Rs 22 lakh in Indian and some Bhutanese currency. The ULFA had denied its involvement in the blasts on the day of the incident it-self and subsequently in its mouthpiece Freedom it de-nied links with HuJI.

Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi had claimed that Ban-gladesh and Pakistan-based insurgent groups were in-volved in the blasts while government spokesman Hi-manta Biswa Sarma had said that jehadi elements with the help of ULFA had carried out the serial attacks.

ULFA advisor denies group’s involvement in blasts

Orange fest in Manipur

NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 5 (ANI): Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil will hold a meet-ing with top police officials from the North Eastern in New Delhi on Wednesday to review the emerging security threat in that region. According to police sources, Patil is expect-ed to chalk out a fresh security strategy to deal with the terror threat from across the border and within the states.

The meeting will review the overall security scenario in the region vis--vis the recent

serial blasts in Assam, Tripura and Manipur. Other issues in-clude the ‘‘‘‘new linkages’’’’ of the United Liberation Front of Asom, the Kamatapur Lib-eration Organisation and the All Tripura Tiger Force with Bangladesh-based Harkat-ul-Jehadi-e-Islami.

Meanwhile, the pro-posed two-day annual secu-rity review meeting of North East DGPs and IGPs, which is scheduled to be held in Shillong on November 6-7, has been cancelled.

NEW DELHI, NOVEM-BER 5 (PTI): Lack of po-litical will to check unabated influx of illegal Bangladeshi migrants into Assam is the root cause of militancy and jehadi violence there, former state governor Lt Gen (retd) S K Sinha today said.

“There has been total lack of political will to take any ac-tion to stop the demographic aggression in Assam due to vote bank considerations,” Sinha, who held office from 1997 to 2003, told reporters here. Expressing shock and anger over last month’s serial blasts in the state which killed

84 people, Sinha said the at-tacks are a sad reflection on the functioning of the gov-ernment which has reduced India to a very soft state.

“The root cause of mili-tancy and jehadi violence in Assam has been illegal migra-tion from Bangladesh. For the sake of votes, the ruling party has not only been turn-ing a blind eye to the problem but has been encouraging it,” Sinha said. To prove his point, he said on April 10, 1992, the then chief minister Hiteswar Saikia told the state Assembly that there were three million illegal migrants in Assam but

two days later he withdrew his statement as he was pres-surised to say that there was not a single person staying il-legally in the state.

Sinha said as governor he had submitted a report to the President about the unabated influx and recommended 15 specific steps to check the danger posed by it. “However my recom-mendations were ignored,” he said, adding fencing of the 260-km border was “very important” to check the migration. On the Sixth Pay Commission recom-mendations, he said the govern-ment must address the genuine grievances of the armed forces.

Illegal infl ux root cause of recent Assam violence: Sinha

Shivraj Patil to review security threat in N-East

NEW DELHI, NOVEM-BER 5 (AGENCIES): In the wake of last month’s serial blasts in Assam, the Centre today decided to set up an intelligence coordina-tion group for northeastern states for “better sharing of information and implemen-tation of inputs at ground level effectively”. “We have decided to set up an intel-ligence coordination group which will institutionalise all inputs and put them into action at the ground level,” Union Home Secre-tary Madhukar Gupta told reporters after a three-hour high-level meeting.

The decision comes in the wake of the increased presence of banned Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islamia (HuJI) in the northeast. The meeting, chaired by National Security Advisor M K Narayanan and attended by Cabinet Secre-tary K M Chandrashekar

besides others, was held fol-lowing Prime Minister Man-mohan Singh’s visit to As-sam where he stressed on the need for generating “action-able intelligence”.

Gupta said the details of the proposed structure would soon be worked out after discussing with the eight northeastern states. The Union Home Ministry will act as a facilitator of the proposed structure. “The idea is to prevent the kind of violence that has taken place recently in the northeast and contain all kinds of violence in general,” he said.

According to Gupta, all northeastern states have sep-arate mechanism to gather intelligence and launching operations against insur-gents as well as perpetra-tors of other crime. “We just want to streamline the whole mechanism among the states in a more coordi-

nated manner for better re-sults at the ground level,” he said. Gupta said the meeting, which was attended by chief secretaries and police chiefs of the northeastern states, representatives of army and paramilitary forces, was con-vened to look into the secu-rity situation in the region in a “wholesome and integrated manner.

“We have taken note of the trend of violence, the ap-proach taken by us and the approach required to be tak-en, whether there was a qual-itative change in the pattern of violence and agreed that there are things which need to be done commonly and collectively,” he said. Gupta said there were several is-sues, like movement of mili-tants from one state to other and smuggling of arms that were affecting the states and needed to be dealt together.

As mobile phones are be-

ing used by militants freely to execute their subversive activities, the Centre direct-ed the states to strengthen subscriber verification pro-cedures so that SIM cards do not land in the wrong hands. Asked about the investiga-tion into the October 30 As-sam blasts, Gupta said he would not like to comment on it before conclusion of the probe but added the Centre has taken the incidents very seriously and trying to en-sure that these do not take place again.

“No effort will be left to get into the bottom of it,” he said, adding representative of Assam briefed the meet-ing about the progress of the probe. Gupta said there were marked improvement of se-curity situation in the north-east except in Assam and Manipur where some violent incidents have taken place in the recent past.

NE to have intelligence coordination group

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 Mike Hulme

LEFT WING | John Cory, Truthout

The Power of Truth

The Morung ExpressTHURSDAY 6 NOVEMBER 2008 VOL. III ISSUE 308

Letters to the Editor

Independence Proponents of liberal democracy have since the end of the Cold War

aggressively purported the idea that Independence is dichotomized into two aspects: Economic Independence and Political Indepen-dence. In falsely suggesting that economics and politics are unre-

lated and by conveniently disregarding all other facets of human life as not having the same importance, it further suggests the idea that Economic In-dependence should precede Political Independence in the context of social change. While this supposition in the present era of globalism may seem seductive, this dichotomization of Independence is costly and has occurred in the same scheming way that the Western knowledge system dichotomized humanity into two conceptual entities: ‘State and Man.’

The dichotomization of Independence is obstructing the natural and equal development of all life; and is invariably strengthening a state-centered status quo. Just as humanity is indivisible, so is Independence undividable. Funda-mental to this understanding is the recognition that Independence is not the end, it is only the means; the necessary conditions by which humanity can freely exercise the development of its full human dignity and human worth. There-fore, the idea that proposes the dichotomization of Independence actually im-plies a perception that views Independence as the end and not the means. This idea creates a false illusion benefiting only the State leaving people hanging in a limbo. The consequence of such a worldview prevents the holistic growth of humanity, while nurturing the forces of the powers that be.

The assertion that political independence should be first or the view that economic independence should come before the political has only caused needless and fruitless polarizations in public discourses. The truth of the matter is that the issue of independence cannot be fragmented. There are sufficient historical and present global occurrences that amply suggest that the stability and well being of any political community requires the effective realization of both political and economic independence. Only together, can the spirit of independence withstand the test of time. This has been mani-fested even in the present economic crisis and it only further demonstrates that governments are required to ensure that financial systems do not col-lapse. They are after all interdependent.

Fundamental to the sustenance of a worldview that nurtures the values of a shared humanity is the realization and acknowledgement that life is not and can not be compartmentalized. It is interconnected and interrelated into a complex web of relations. Simply put; one affects the other just as the principle of the ‘butterfly effect.’ From this view point independence cannot be dichotomized, but should be understood and exercised in its sense as a re-lational value that finds meaning only when it is respected and approached in its indivisible entity. Independence therefore is a means, not the end. In this manner, the values of independence are lived in a real manner in the daily lives of men and women.

This distinction is critical in differentiating between those who seek to exercise independence to greater fulfillment of life, while the other finds at-tainment in the symbolism and status of independence; even when they are not able to exercise it fully. There is no doubt that political independence on its own cannot survive, and it is equally true that economic independence on its own will not elevate the dignity and quality of human life. In their indi-vidual attributes as economic and political freedom, they are but incomplete and unsustainable, but together in relationship they are complementary in bringing out the true and fullest meaning of what it is to be independent. Metaphorically, they are different sides of the same coin.

Most independent movements however have fallen quarry into dichoto-mizing the values of independence. Noble human endeavors such as inde-pendence must be realized in its complete entity, or else they face a prema-ture end. Nagas, too are faced with this dilemma and it would be detrimental for Nagas to entrap themselves in this dichotomy. The failure to engage in a deeper and critical process of understanding the meaning of independence and contextualizing its values in the local context would only prevent us from making a more informed decision. The issue cannot be simplified.

Dichotomized view of independence negates the interactive nature of how public policy and politics and economics in general are influenced by actions of civil society, implying that the lives of ordinary people are put on hold until political or economic independence is achieved. This again is part of the illusion created by a fragmented view of independence. The issue here is not about whether economic or political independence should be first. If the independence that Nagas yearn for is an independence that will give owner-ship to the people to make decisions and exercise their rights to elevate their quality of lives and to define the course of their dignity, then, it is essential that Independence is not dichotomized into narrow elements of economics and politics. After all independence is a much richer and fuller concept.

Hence, if independence is to be living reality in the every day conduct of human affairs, it is imperatives that all facets of independence must simul-taneously be pursued, not one over the other, but together harmoniously as one entity.

What impact will the glob-al economic downturn have on arguments about climate change? The way to an answer lies through ourselves as much as the weather

Climate change is often de-scribed as the greatest envi-ronmental crisis faced by the world. So what is the signifi-

cance of the unfolding global financial crisis for the "climate crisis"? Might it lead to a retreat from concern, a resur-gent interventionism or a reflection on society's deeper dilemmas?

"Climate change" involves far more than a measured description of evolv-ing trends in regional or global weather statistics or an uncomplicated account of the changing biogeochemical func-tions of the Earth system. How we talk about climate change - our discourse - is increasingly shaping our percep-tion and interpretation of the chang-ing physical realities that science is battling to reveal to us. At that same time, discourse is always embedded in evolving cultural, political and ethi-cal movements and moods. Not only is our climate unstable, but how we talk about our climate is also unstable.

Understanding climate change - and the meaning we attach to the idea - is therefore always historically contingent. A sequence of four influential themes that have emerged over the last four de-cades illustrates the point. The idea of anthropogenic global climate change first became a possibility following the emergence of the 1960s environmental movement; the phenomenon became fully globalised during the triumph of economic globalism during the 1980s and 1990s; climate change then became part of new security discourses which emerged after 9/11; while following the Stern report on the economics of climate change in 2006, climate change has been viewed by some as merely a consequence of market failure.

The onset of the financial crisis and a gathering worldwide recession, signalled by the banking collapses and emergency bailouts of September-Oc-tober 2008 - make it plausible to antici-pate that this period too will generate

its own characteristic frame of refer-ence. So how will this latest manifesta-tion of economic globalism change the way we think, talk and act about climate change? What may this new global turn eventually do to climate - both materi-ally (by modifying the flows of carbon-dioxide through the planet) and cul-turally (by modifying the rhetoric and language of climate change)?

The three pointersClimate change is a powerful sym-

bol of the current zeitgeist. It is a hy-brid phenomenon that reveals and is revealed by a number of important political, economic, intellectual and psychological dualisms: global-local, north-south, material-cultural, fear-hope, control-vulnerability. As we vac-illate between these poles of thought and action, so too does our talk of climate change and with it our un-derstanding of the phenomenon and what it means to us. Climate change becomes a continually mutating hy-brid entity in which scientific narra-tives are unavoidably entangled with wider social discourses (see "Climate change: from issue to magnifier", 19 October 2008).

There are many directions in which this hybrid entity of climate change may evolve in the months and years ahead, in parallel with persisting eco-nomic problems and accompanying social dislocation. Just as the physical climate- system responds both to slow-changing natural rhythms and also to more rapid human-induced perturba-tions, so will those human artefacts we use to make sense of climate change - language, metaphors, policies, beliefs - respond both rapidly and slowly to the new financial and economic mood. I suggest these social responses may fall into one of three meta-categories:

• a retreat from concern about cli-mate change

• a resurgent support for state poli-cies on climate change

• a deeper reflection about the hu-man drivers of climate change.

The warm echoThe first response is seen in the

instinctive reaction of some commen-tators to questions about the signifi-

cance of the financial crisis for climate change: that the bursting of the credit-bubble will be mirrored in the burst-ing of the climate-change bubble. The adherents of this view will mobilise historical precedent (such as the col-lapse of surging environmental pop-ulism in Europe following the 1991 recession) to argue that the new re-cession will reveal the shallowness of the commitments of political leaders to effecting far-reaching reductions in carbon emissions.

The gradual dilution of the Euro-pean Union's 2020 carbon-reduction target is reflected in the opposition of east-central European states to the auctioning of emissions-permits, and in the further transfer from Europe of "real" physical emissions-reductions to the "purchased" emissions-reduc-tions of the global south; the outcome might support the contention that in this region at least, economic uncer-tainty is likely to be followed by envi-ronmental retreat.

The second response, and a coun-ter-argument to the above, is that the financial crisis will provide just the confidence-boost that is needed for neo-Keynesian interventionist poli-cies on climate change. If banks can be brought under state control through massive injection of borrowed funds, then surely new waves of state invest-ment targeted at low-carbon energy supply and energy-efficiency tech-nologies can be secured. This was the basic argument outlined in the "green new deal", launched in July 2008 by the new economics foundation before the financial crisis fully matured; it is a case repeated by other voices such as Elliot Morley, president of GLOBE International (see his speech in Wash-ington on 11 October 2008 to the Inter-national Commission on Climate and Energy Security).

This argument of "crisis-as-oppor-tunity" also resonates with the influ-ential thinker Anthony Giddens's call for the old "enabling state" to evolve into the new "ensuring state" (see "The politics of climate change", Policy Net-work, 8 September 2008). This would require certain collectively-defined emissions-outcomes to be ensured through appropriate regulatory frame-works. To achieve the putative goals

Amid the Financial Storm:

Redirecting Climate Change

An appeal to the Executive Engineer, Baghty Wokha•Sir- With utmost respect, the undersigned on behalf of the general public, the Lotha Middle Range Students Union would like to put forward some few lines on the ongoing Sanis/Mekokla PWD Road construction.

That Sir, through the letter Ref.No.Gen/Secy/AA/07 dated 17-03-07 the LMRSU has requested and appealed to the concern contractors of the said road construction to carry out the work as per the work order lay down by the Govt. of Nagaland.

However, the Union Executive after and on the spot inspection had found that the contractors are not carrying out the said construction accordingly, especially the drainage, culverts from Sanis to Mekokla. The polders that are used between Akuk and Mekokla are totally disapproved one.

Sir, having learned all the above facts, the undersigned requests your esteem authority to immediately intervene into the said ongoing road construction for greater interest of the range people. Failing to take up any corrective measures at the earliest will invited the students community to take up its own course of actions and the union would not held any responsibility.

Thanking you in anticipation.Jenithung Shitiri

President, LMRSU

God’s revelation to all the Naga citizens•Sir- This is a message from Holy Spirit addressed to all Naga citizens. The Nagas are chosen people by God. But instead of obeying me they are commit-ting sins insulting God and the Holy Spirit. They are turning away from me and following the path of Satan.

The Israelites, while living in Egypt as slaves, Moses the prophet led them from Egypt to their Promised Land Cannan to have been reached in 40 days. But 40 days turned to be 40 years because the people of Israel murmured against Moses and God on their way to Cannan from Egypt. God’s curse fallen down on their heads because of their sins. All the adult male members died on the way before reaching Canaan. Only females and children could reach the Promised Land.

In the same manner, I will destroy each and every Naga National Workers who are committing sins against God dividing amongst them and chasing and killing each other. I will destroy certain group completely. I will not hear their voices nor grant them what they are searching for. I will give freedom to the Nagas only to those who believe and respect me thus, says the Lord. Amen

Imsu JamirHealing Prayer Centre

Sungkomen, Mokokchung

I wrote my first piece for Truthout eight years ago. It was the end of the 2000 election. George Bush had been crowned the victor by a 5 to 4 Supreme vote. I had never heard of Marc Ash and Scott Galindez, nor they me. I have no idea what their readership was in those days; I only

knew that I had discovered voices in the dark that gave me solace and hope. And before long, I found Hoffmania, Buzzflash, Bartcop, the great and wise Digby, Eschaton and Dailykos, and many others. I was no longer alone.

Whether I was in Saudi Arabia, the border of Iraq and Kuwait or the great Hindu Kush of Afghanistan, there was always a link to voices of com-passion and reason, of democratic patriotism and change. Voices of that wonderful dream called America. That quiet breathing of hope.

From those dark times to the light and possibility that is today, we have held true to one another, to the dream of inspiration over fear, to the great-ness of the American heart over the misguided might of American Empire, to the fight for the future versus the struggle to hold tightly to the past. "We, the People" have illuminated the darkness with much more than "a thousand points of light," with our electronic pamphleteers and motivated emails, and revealed the erroneous and divisive tactics of red versus blue America. "We, the People" have kept the flame of American passion and democracy alive.

This vast web of blogs and Internet "series of tubes" has connected us, has built a community wherein we share the facts and the truth, one with another. No longer isolated but a part of something greater. Hope has be-come a keyboard shortcut. Truth waits at the end of the "Send" button. Dreams and inspiration become viral. How wonderful is that? How great is it that we belong to such a community? How magical is it that we hold democracy in the palm devices of our hands? That the virtual and "real" America is our homepage?

And here we are – on the verge of history. Together. And how did we get here? In the words of Studs Terkel: "... once you become active in something, something happens to you. You get excited and suddenly you realize you count." And that is what Obama represents to me. It is not a vote for Demo-crat or Republican, but a vote for America. It is not about voting for one man or the other, but about voting for ourselves. That we count – and right-fully deserve to be counted. It is not that we stand with Obama, but that he stands with us. It is not that Obama can make history, but rather that "We the people" can change history.

This is what I see in my vote for Barack Obama. The face of America. A mirror of all of us. And like our own mirror, the image is not perfection but rather the blemished garden of possibility. Hope. Dreams. Compassion. A longing for the best that is within each of us even on our worst days. Obama's face is my face and your face. Black, white and brown, it is that mystical rainbow called America. This is truly a day of votes and dreams.

Dreams and Votes“Not only is another world

possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her

breathing.” - Arundhati Roy

of climate policy under such a dispen-sation would call for, if not quite the discredited heavy-handed state col-lectivism of earlier ideologies, then a new "green" authoritarianism within western liberal democracies. In Britain for example, it is hard to see how else the climate-change minister Ed Mili-band's adoption of a minimum 80% reduction in carbon-emissions by 2050 will be secured. Voluntarism in climate change, this argument would suggest, may soon seem as outdated an axiom as self-regulation of capital markets now appears.

These two reactions to the finan-cial crisis - a retreat from concern and a resurgence of regulation - appear dia-metrically opposed. Yet each reveals a conservative understanding of the fun-damental conundrum which underlies climate change. Neither attempts or engages with any deep diagnosis of the climate-change phenomenon. A third response, less articulated at present than the other two but already visible, may by undertaking this task come to offer a new set of directions: whereby the financial crisis could move our dis-course about climate change towards wider challenges to our values, our life-styles and our (implicit and explicit) judgments about human well-being.

These challenges may range from questioning the ethics underlying in-stitutional forms and practices to ques-tioning the values and aspirations of individual citizens. Jonathon Porritt, for example, calls for a recognition of the parallels between financial and ecological debt (see Jonathon Por-ritt, "Zero hour for a new capitalism", Green Futures, October 2008); and this is itself an upstream economic version of the argument already articulated in WWFs report Weathercocks and Sign-posts (April 2008)

The latter suggests that no sub-stantial progress on climate-change goals will be secured without con-fronting the prevailing "extrinsic" values (material goods, financial suc-cess, image) by which society largely operates, and replacing them with "intrinsic" values (personal growth, emotional intimacy, community in-volvement). This implies no less than a wholesale reframing and redirecting of human development. If we apply the scenario categories of the Intergov-ernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC's) special report on emissions scenarios, the WWF report advocates a future that looks and feels more like the "local stewardship" (B2) scenario than the "global affluence" (A1) world. Such a project of social restructuring resonates too with the "low-energy cos-mopolitanism" postulated by Andrew Dobson and David Hayes (see "A poli-tics of crisis: low-energy cosmopoli-tanism", 22 October 2008)

.

The inner costThe financial crisis that has shaken

the world in autumn 2008, and the re-cession trailing in its wake, will at the very least make us realise that an ad-equate reading of climate change is about very much more than "getting the science right" or deploying clever Earth-systems models that offer predictions of approaching climate tipping-points. The future course of climate change - understood as a hybrid physical-cul-tural phenomenon in which science and our social discourse are enduringly entangled - has many more dimensions than those that can be represented nu-merically in a model.

The financial crisis, seen in an op-timistic light, may yet do more than this. It may help us see that climate change isn't the greatest demon we humans have to confront; rather, our demons reside in the values we live by. If it causes us to expose the impossible arithmetic of more-people-plus-great-er-material-consumption-plus-higher-levels-of-debt equals-an-improving-quality-of-life, then it may do more for climate change than any number of economic or political interventions.

THURSDAYTHE MORUNG EXPRESS6 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

Xonzoi Barbora

INITIAL REACTIONS are an impor-tant indicator of how people take stock of events beyond their control. On Octo-ber 30, 2008 as the news of serial bombs exploding around Guwahati spread, people around our office complex called friends and family to make sure that they were safe. As the enormity of the blasts sunk in, one heard that simi-lar explosions had occurred in Barpeta Road, Bongaigaon and Kokrajhar. The overwhelming response among people was one of concern. The administration however reacted by trying to apportion responsibility on perceived perpetrators of the blasts. Government spokesper-sons and senior security personnel, look-ing politically dyslexic went on air to say that they were not ruling out the respon-sibility of one or the other militant group in the attack. Obviously angered by this display of callousness and failure, local people began to stone police vehicles. A local television channel kept repeating footage of an angry man throwing a tyre twice his size at a damaged police ve-hicle. To add to the death toll, ten more people – mostly police personnel – were killed in an ambush in North Cachar Hills. A small faction of a militia claim-ing to fight for the rights of the Dimasa people was said to be responsible for the ambush. Trapped between the anonym-ity of bombs and the intimacy of an am-bush lies the tragic story of contentious politics in contemporary Assam.

While journalists and security ex-perts ask the obvious post-event ques-tion of who is responsible for the blasts, this would be an opportune moment to pause and think about why this has happened. Anger and resentment are recurring themes in the political land-scape in the region. While Thursday's events are on a different scale altogeth-er, it would be pointless to see them as a paradigmatic shift in more than three decades of conflict. Which is precisely what the administration and security experts would like us believe, since such hollow profundity sounds som-bre and chilling and make them look less insensitive. No, this is a variation of an old Assamese story of the abject lack of a political space to express col-lective angst of people who feel that an unsympathetic and calculating admin-istration has forsaken them.

Barely three weeks ago the north bank of the Brahmaputra was wit-ness to riots that left many dead and thousands displaced. Many of the dis-placed still live in makeshift camps in Darrang district. The riots originated in a charged milieu following a gen-eral strike called by the All Minority Students Union (AMSU) against the

The Wages of Resentment Meeting MDG on HIV/AIDS - A Dream?

Renu KshetryInter Press Service

Shibu Giri, programme officer at the National Asso-ciation of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Nepal, who tested positive in 2000, believed he was fit and fine as his CD-4 count stayed normal. But when he began falling sick frequently and developed candida

in his mouth he began to have doubts. "I decided to go for an HIV viral load test," Giri said referring to the relatively expen-sive test which calls for blood samples to be send to Thailand because Nepal does not have the facilities.

The results sent alarm bells ringing as the count was 500,000 copies per ml, which is far higher than the recom-mended viral load of 50,000 copies per ml or less. "If I had relied on CD-4 (immune monitoring indicator) count alone, then my life would have shortened for sure," said Giri, who was started on anti-retroviral therapy (ART) recently.

Giri believes that his life was saved because of his aware-ness of the system. Not everyone is as lucky, and some of Giri’s friends succumbed to the disease long before they could be started on ART. While ART came to Nepal in 2004 and CD-4 count tests in 2005, this impoverished country still does not have the capacity to carry out HIV viral load tests that mea-sures the amount of HIV genetic material (RNA or DNA) in the blood.

There are 25 ART sites in 25 of Nepal’s 75 districts. So far only 1,920 people have availed of this facility whereas the num-ber of people living with HIV/AIDS in Nepal is estimated at 70,000, according to National Centre for AIDS and STD Con-trol (NCASC). The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has approved 36 million US dollars of the ‘Round Seven’ fund to fight HIV/AIDS. But the huge assistance com-ing from abroad has not been enough.

"For the effective implementation of ARV drugs, viral load testing is very important along with introducing provider ini-tiative counseling testing for effective result rather than vol-untary counseling testing," said Rajiv Kafle, vice chairperson of Country Coordination Mechanism for HIV/AIDs. "Due to the low number of testing facilities, most of the HIV infected people are unaware of it. There is a need for massive testing campaigning. Even though there is treatment availability, due to lack of testing, majority of HIV infected people are dying," said Kafle.

Insufficient coverage of targeted prevention for popula-tions at highest risk is a particular challenge compounded by the huge gap between reported and estimated cases. National estimates indicate that 92 per cent of cases of infections are in the 15-49 age group. Estimates for 2007 show that 42 percent of all HIV infections in Nepal are among seasonal labour mi-grants, 15 percent among clients of sex workers and 21 percent are wives or partners of HIV positive men.

As a medical rule also, the viral load should go down (50 copies/ ml) and CD-4 Count should go up after 3 months of taking ARV drugs. But here in Nepal, there are many patients who have been taking ARV drugs for years without knowing whether it was of any use or not. Though there are an esti-mated 70,000 HIV-infected people in Nepal, only about 10,000 have revealed their status. Therefore, Nepal achieving Mil-lennium Development Goals (MDGs) by halting and revers-ing the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015 remains a far-fetched dream.

Dr. Dirgha Singh Bam, secretary at Nepal’s ministry of health and population, told IPS: "We are working on intro-ducing various new strategies and technologies to achieve the MDGs on HIV/AIDS. It needs collective efforts and more preventive programme which the government is working on.’’ The ministry has now allocated a budget for viral load test ma-chine procurement.

The United Nations’ MDG on HIV/AIDS calls for halting and reversing the spread of HIV by 2015 mainly by provid-ing universal access to comprehensive prevention, treatment and care. Jeffrey Scot Morey, portfolio manager of the Global Fund, who was here recently for grant negotiations, told IPS that with public and private partnerships among stakehold-ers, and with the support of the Nepali people, it is possible to achieve the MDGs.

"The national strategy is to increase the availability of voluntary testing and treatment," he said. "As effective pro-grammes are implemented and proposed and ongoing research is continued, more precise information will be available." "Re-ducing transmission among groups driving the HIV epidemic through high-risk behaviour is crucial and needs to remain a focus of the response," he further said, adding that the number of people living with HIV/AIDS continues to rise in Nepal as also those in need of care.

RECONCILIATION Rebeka Tabobondung

We are waking up to our historyfrom a forced slumberWe are breathing it into our lungsso it will be part of us againIt will make us angry at firstbecause we will see how much you stole from usand for how long you watched us sufferwe will see how you see usand how when we copied your wayswe killed our own.

We will cry and cry and crybecause we can never be the same againBut we will go home to cryand we will see ourselves in this huge messand we will gently whisper the circle backand it will be old and it will be new

Then we will breathe our history back to youyou will feel how strong and alive it isand you will feel yourself become a part of itAnd it will shock you at firstbecause it is too big to see all at onceand you won't want to believe ityou will see how you see usand all the disaster in your wayshow much we lost

And you will cry and cry and crybecause we can never be the same againBut we will cry with youand we will see ourselves in this huge messand we will gently whisper the circle back|and it will be old and it will be new.

The text as our Mirror and our WorldThe Bible is not clear without hu-

man interpretation(s). It requires the intense discipline of engagement and imagination demanding our very best. Her•me•neu•tics (hur-muh-noo-tiks), the technical name for interpretation comes from the Greek word Hermes, a god that travelled between the world of the living and the death with news and messages (like a cosmic postal service). Hermeneutics deals with the interpreta-tive aspects of the texts under investiga-tion. Hermeneutics enables understand-ing by enlightening as well as obscuring the text. Thus, interpretation is a hard discipline. Nevertheless, as a human craft, through God’s grace, it is learned, acquired, and mastered over a long peri-od. Ultimately, hermeneutics reveals who we are.

Hermeneutics in our ChurchesWreckage describes our Christianity.

Perhaps, our soil has failed to produce deep roots. I do not intend to bash our land in hatred, but I plead for us all to cultivate our hermeneutics: by using the right fertilizer, that is, the biblical soil. We need to see the biblical matrix—the biblical authors, their original audience, and their issues. This should help us in viewing the mirror, the Bible. Our most popular scriptural reading guides—sen-timentality and application—hinders us. This does not mean that they are wrong, but out-of-date. Such readings nourish “babes in Christ.” Milk-based reading or baby reading merely aims at the pietistic level (emotional and personal aspects); i.e., what the text means to “me” by shat-tering the mirror. If we read the Bible to find out merely “what it means to me” throughout our life, it is like a grown man of thirty going back to his mother’s breast milk for food. Our churches have been drinking this milk forever. To go beyond our usual milk-based reading, we need our pastors and teachers to do their jobs. If not, our reading equals to self-help and a groundless wish.

An unexamined reading leads us to the wrong direction: self-centeredness and injecting viruses to our churches. Seeing Scripture in its context will not undermine or take them away from us, but will give us wings, substance, and a clearer mirror for our churches. We have been stuck in reverse for a long time and we need to move forward. Ahead lie many horizons for us to see and our collective

souls must soar high to become the peo-ple we are meant to be.

Scripture demands Cross-Cultural understanding. After all, the Bible was written by, for, and about people in the ancient Mediterranean world whose cul-ture, worldview, social patterns, and daily expectations differed sharply from our contemporary Indian or Northeastners or Southeast Asian realities. Reading Scrip-tures does not necessarily mean God talk-ing to you. However, depending upon how good we become in cross-cultural sensitivities, we hear and see God. This requires a healthy appreciation and un-derstanding of the “otherness” inherent in our Bible. Seeing and appreciating cul-tural otherness enable us to “see” the bib-lical stories and this in turn transforms our churches and our land. Mature read-ers do not presume to understand what the “text” is saying, without knowing the writer’s matrix.

Multi-culturalism, tribalism, and other stratifications are a reality in the North-East. In fact, all kinds of “isms” exist in our land. Within our own bubble of “ism” or native churches, we practice and ostracize others. Perhaps not mali-ciously, but we do not necessarily open our bubbles either. As such, our people naturally mistreat the “other” (the non-locals or the other tribes). No matter what we call them, the “other” exists for all hu-man beings. Inter-cultural problems ex-ist in written communication (Bible) as well. We fail to see them because we trust the lucidity of the biblical text. Thus, we think and assume that the Bible speaks to “me” directly. Such tendency has a long history in the Western culture but not in our traditional culture. We come from an oral based culture like the biblical grid. Our culture unfortunately gravitates and grafts with the Western matrix very eas-ily. Remember, Western Empire(s) colo-nized us physically, mentally, and spiritu-ally. And in part because of Christianity we trust them to the point of absurdity. Perhaps no one says this aloud, but we assume that “Western” and in particular, “America” means good or better. Such un-reflected assumptions plays powerful and influential role in our hermeneutics. If we think about it, our region by the fact that it is closer to the Mediterranean from where the Bible comes from has more cul-tural resemblance compared to the West-ern matrix.

The State of our churches

We lack serious pastors and teachers. This highlights our churches’ crippling generational flaws. We have plenty of the usual suspects—revivalistic babblers—preachers filled with folk wisdom and an-ecdotes, but lacking genuine engagements with the Scriptures. No wonder our peo-ple hold unto many baseless beliefs. For example, we believe that the Holy Spirit interprets the Bible for us and so if we pray enough God will surely tell us. Such sincere fervor misses the biblical stories. Interestingly almost all the Baptist bible schools and seminaries in America teach (explicitly and implicitly) building on the notion that the Holy Spirit ultimately in-terprets the Scripture for every person. On the surface, this looks very pious. Af-ter all, we assume naively that Bible read-ing means nothing more than discovering “what it means to me.” Such notion, it turns out not only disrespects the cultural otherness of the writers and offers an open invitation for self-projection, but also as-sumes that we somehow control the Holy Spirit. This kind of abuse of the text pro-duces the so-called fundamentalistic con-viction, a state of being where you think that you alone have access to our God and no one else. This essentially undermines the gift of the Holy Spirit. It turns out that according to the Scripture without gifted interpreters (pastors and teachers) of the Bible, we cannot grasp the Bible and grow (Ephesians 4:11-16). If we can go beyond our prescribed Sunday preaching or annu-ally “planned” revival meetings and ser-mons that are fashionable throughout our land, then we can harness mature inter-pretations. For this, we need pastors and teachers who are “called” into this tough vocation. They in turn must not be afraid to think, learn, and stand up for the right issues. Without such gifted people, we are doomed.

Although our churches appear to be the strongest and the most influential in-stitution, inability characterizes her just like the police department or the Coun-cil of Ministers. In fact, our churches are no different from the failed Governmen-tal agencies like the Power or the Water Departments. They all fall short to con-tribute meaningfully (I do have friends in these department who are working hard, honestly, and diligently for our people). We simply must stop using the Bible as a strategy, that is, as a platform to articu-late perceptions of one’s own creation and selfish needs. As long as we continue to look for “what it means to me”—so goes

our churches. We stand in danger like the proverbial salt without flavors. Jesus’s teaching about the salt demonstrates the potency of a small minority—influencing the entire dish or the culture. Excessive salt in our favorite pork dish renders it in-edible (Matthew 5:13).

Looking forwardChristianity demands hard work. No

one becomes mature because we believe in God. Even the demons have the same belief (James 2:19). So congratulations, if we have reached the maturity level of the Devil. Remember the greatest com-mandment of the Scripture: Love your God with all of our heart, MIND, and soul; followed by loving our neighbors (the others) as ourselves (Matthew 22:37-40). We have completely abandoned or forgotten the life of the Mind in loving our Lord. Thus, sickness and inability characterizes our churches. Neither do we live justly with our neighbors.

Bear in mind, the Bible addresses a community that Jesus begins and por-tends through the calling of the disciples not to individuals. It is the constitution of a PEOPLE not just for you. None of us can live by the demands of the Bible on our own, but that is the point. The demands of the Scripture by design make us depend on God and on one an-other. Hence, the first and second great-est commandment describes a people gathered by and around Jesus not a re-quirement list. To follow Jesus demands a gathering. The two “greatest” com-mandments provide the interpretive key to the Christian life—precisely because they are not recommendations. Consid-er, the crowd in Jesus’s own time much like our people was often impressed by his teachings and his miracles, but when push came to shove, the crowd called for his crucifixion. Jesus’s own disciples also abandoned him at the end, but Jesus had called them to follow him, making them the continuation of his work and story. All the New Testament writers rightly hope that through the re-telling of the story of Christ, we may be no less and become one people as Jesus, the Son of God envisioned. We must see this vision of Jesus. Are we admirers merely or fol-lowers of this Son of God? This question is fundamental. I admire many things including Buddha and Aristotle, but I am a follower of Christ. If we follow him be ready for mental gymnastics—the life of the mind.

alleged victimisation of Bengali-speaking Muslim youth. Tensions generated during the general strike erupted as non-Muslims attempted to prevent AMSU from mobil-ising. Again, the state machinery looked thoroughly inept as spokespersons went on their finger-pointing exercise. Similar-ly, in 2005 hundreds of people were killed and more than sixty thousand displaced in clashes between mysterious militia claming to represent the Dimasa and Kar-bi people in Karbi Anglong district.

Why has political difference become a matter of violent confrontation and what does the bomb do to notions of a political process? For a provisional answer to the first part, one has to understand the man-ner in which constitutional vocabulary and counter-insurgency have created a milieu of distrust among different communities who share the same resource base. Political scientist Sanjib Baruah has written about the manner in which a colonial spatial or-der has been imposed upon groups of peo-ple in Northeast India, whereby notions of a people belonging to a particular habitat has been instrumental in framing identity politics. In Assam antiquated census cate-gories such as "hill tribe", "plains tribe" and so on are part of political currency during negotiations with the state. The remark-able simplicity of these categories is dan-gerous when one applies them to complex processes of political mobilisation. Hence, an Oraon ex-tea worker may still live in a relief camp sixteen years after a particular phase of the Boro movement, where non-Boros were forced out of western Assam. In

every such incident the possibility of dia-logue diminishes and prejudices multiply. Confrontation therefore becomes an inevi-table reality and every community looks for protection within its own fold, ostensibly to provide security to a collective based on kin ties.

The bomb changes the contours of po-litical possibilities even within such a con-tentious terrain. Placing a bomb in a pub-lic place is an act that circumscribes the development of a political process where dialogue is possible. In Assam, two decades of ferment have led to escalating levels of violence perpetuated in equal part by the state and non-state actors. During this time, the people of the Assam have been subjected to targeted killings by death squads organised and armed by the state; forced to live in camps following attacks by armed militia; with successive govern-ments showing no interest in resolving the causes of conflict. The Congress led coali-tion has been in power for two terms now, and in the course of which it has signed cessation of hostilities – erroneously called "ceasefires" in the local media – with at least five armed groups. The modality of talks with these groups has not gone be-yond immediate photo-ops and securing cadres to designated camps. Worse still has been the state government's pusillanimity in pushing for political dialogue between the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) and the government of India. The security establishment has been inept in resolving conflicts in Assam and aggrieved constituencies are looking for plausible an-

swers. Bombs are symptomatic of an over-all failure of existing conflict-resolution paradigms.

Instead, the political establishment has chosen to make wild, irresponsible allega-tions to cover its failures. It has had able support from a pliant and crude electronic media, with television channels pushing out their young defence experts to simplify and even falsify the course of events in As-sam. It was frightening to see the absence of journalist ethics in the manner in which smarmy reporters and analysts kept quot-ing "intelligence sources" and behaving as though they were investigative officers in the case. The sum total of this post-blast administrative madness is the inevitable process of ethnic polarisation on religious grounds. One fears that in our haste to move on from the ghastly memories of the blasts, we will be helping a cynical politi-cal establishment that does not want to ad-dress the structural causes of resentment in Assam. In a few weeks, our anger might be assuaged by a constant barrage of use-less information that tells us who might have been responsible, but we would then be party to turning a blind eye to why an-other section of people feel resentful.

At times like this, wiser counsel would suggest that we temper our initial reac-tions with sobering ideas for the future. What Assam does not need is another recipe from the unimaginative counter-insurgency machinery that talks of more militarisation, but one where concern for others is brought back into political dis-course.

Mental Gymnastics

CMYK

CMYK

6 November 2008Thursday8 Dimapur The Morung ExpressNATIONAL

NEWS FILEFilmmaker B R Chopra passes awayMUMBAI, NOVEMBER 5 (PTI): Legendary filmmak-er Baldev Raj Chopra died at his residence in Mumbai on Wednesday following prolonged illness. He was 94. Chopra was not keeping well for some time and his demise came at 0830 hours at his residence in suburban Juhu. Chopra, one of India’s most respected film personalities is survived by his filmmaker son Ravi Chopra and two daughters. The eminent producer-director was the elder brother of filmmaker Yash Chopra. The funeral will take place at the Juhu crematorium at 4.30 pm, family sources said. The filmmaker was known for converting offbeat stories highlighting socially relevant issues into im-mortal classics like ‘Dhool Ka Phool’ (1959), ‘Waqt’(1965) and ‘Naya Daur’ (1957), ‘Kanoon’ (1958), ‘Humraz’ (1967), ‘Insaf Ka Tarazu’ (1980) and ‘Nikah’ (1982) to name a few.

J&K trying to win confidence of touristsSRINAGAR, NOVEMBER 5 (PTI): Paradise on Earth is desperately seeking to retain the confidence of tourists who have shunned the Kashmir valley because of disturbances ranging from militancy to the unrest over the Amarnath land issue. With Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir round the corner, there is little hope of much tourist traffic during this winter, but those involved in the tourism trade are hopeful of a huge turnout from different corners of the coun-try as well as from abroad next summer. “Due to the situation we don’t get many people visiting the state,” State Tourism Director Farooq Shah said. “Kashmir is the best destination. There is ample opportunity for mountaineering, skiing and rafting apart from great beauty that a tourist can enjoy,” Shah said. Stating that the situation has greatly improved and tour-ists were safe to visit Kashmir, he said “we want the true im-age of the state to be projected.” “If the true potential of the state is exploited, it can be an alternative to a holiday in Eu-rope,” he said. Inspector General of Kashmir Range of J&K, G Srinivasan sounded very upbeat about the possibilities of tourism stating that it was safe to visit Kashmir. “I can assure that there is no organised effort to disturb the tourists,” Srini-vasan said. “There was only one incident this year when one man from Uttar Pradesh lost his life in June,” he said.

Pandit Bhimsen Joshi awarded Bharat RatnaNEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 5 (NDTV): Celebrated vo-calist Bhimsen Joshi has been honoured with India’s highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna. A descendant of the Kirana gharana, Pandit Joshi is renowned for bhajans and khayals. In the past, he has also received the Padma Shree, Padma Bhush-an and Padma Vibhushan. Joshi, the son of a schoolteacher, left home at the age of 11 to pursue his passion for singing. His debut album, featuring bhajans in Kannada and Hindi, was released when he was just 20. Besides being honoured with several awards, Bhimsen Joshi is known for starting an annual classical musical festival in the memory of his guru.

Sotheby’s to auction rare books on IndiaLONDON, NOVEMBER 5 (PTI): A rare collection of il-lustrated books and drawing capturing the beauty of 19th century India are part of Sotheby’s November sale in Lon-don. The auction house plans to sell a selection of illustrated books and drawings of mountaineers and travellers in 19th century as a part of its ‘Natural History, Travel, Atlases and Maps’ sale on November 13. The highlights of the sale are a collection of books from the library of mountaineer and photographer Nikolas Tombazia, William Simpson and Sir John William Kaya’s rare series of illustrations depicting the beautiful scenery of everyday life of 19th century India. The other highlight includes James Baillie Fraser’s ‘Views in the Himalayan Mountains’, which is estimated at 15,000 to 20,000 pounds. Fraser’s large folio of magnificent hand-coloured prints of the Himalayan Mountains has been de-scribed by Godrej & Rohatgi as “among the finest aquatints of mountain scenery ever produced.”

Goa minister’s son sent to police remandPANJIM, NOVEMBER 5 (NDTV): Goa Education Minis-ter Atanasio Monserratte’s son Rohit has been remanded to three days police custody by a Goa court in connection with a case of rape of a German minor girl. Rohit had surrendered before the Goa police on Tuesday. He was booked by Goa po-lice on October 14 for allegedly raping the German girl and had gone missing after that. He appeared before the police on November 1 to give his statement, a few hours before the 14-year-old German girl deposed before a magistrate after initial reluctance. Earlier, the German minor girl had under-gone a medical test at the Goa medical college and her lawyer had said that doctors have confirmed rape.

NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 5 (REUTERS): India hailed the election of Barack Obama as the next U.S. president on Wednesday, saying his “extraordinary journey” to the White House would inspire people not only in his country but around the world. The two coun-tries, once on opposing sides of the Cold War divide, have come close during the last few years and signed a landmark bilateral civilian nu-clear deal personally supported by outgoing Republican President George W. Bush.

New Delhi and Washington have expanded defence coopera-tion and strengthened business ties, an alliance which India’s tra-ditional allies from Russia to Iran have watched gingerly. “Your ex-traordinary journey to the White House will inspire people not only in your country but also around the world,” Prime Minister Manmo-han Singh said in a congratulatory message to Obama. “I look forward to working with you to realise the enormous potential for coopera-tion that exists between India and the United States.”

India’s growing ties with the United States have met with po-litical opposition at home, with the communists withdrawing support to Singh’s government in July over the bilateral nuclear deal they said was against the interest of India. But analysts expect this coopera-tion to only expand further as the world tries to fight rising militant violence and a financial crisis singeing almost every major econ-omy. Many experts say Obama will bring both opportunities and chal-lenges for India – from outsourcing issues to global militant violence.

“So far as terrorism is concerned Obama’s focus is the Pakistan-Af-ghanistan border areas which is good for India,” said Shashank, In-dia’s former foreign secretary. He saw a greater role for India in draw-ing up security strategies for the

Election of Obama as US President “historic”: CPINEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 5 (PTI): The CPI today described the election of Barack Obama as the US President as “historic” and expressed hope that he would bring about a change in the US policies, particularly towards West and South Asia. “Obama had sought votes for a change. People have supported him for a change. We hope he can really bring about a changes in the US policies towards the developing world, particularly in West and South Asia,” CPI national secretary D Raja told PTI.

Maintaining that the Bush ad-ministration had been “belligerent” in its approach towards the developing countries, he said he hoped that the new president would make a departure from Bush’s policy especially those concerning peace and development. “I hope Obama will respect multilat-eralism,” Raja said. Obama’s victory itself was historic because for the first time, a person from such a social and economic background has won the US presidential polls, he said.

NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 5 (PTI): Leaders of the Indian-Amer-ican community today welcomed the election of Barack Obama as the next President of the US, expressing confidence that growing ties between the two countries would be further strengthened during his tenure.

Chairman of the American In-dians for Democrats Sant Singh Chatwal, a major fund-raiser for the party, said Obama along with Vice

President Joseph Biden would fol-low a pragmatic foreign policy as they understand the reality of the global situation. Biden, he noted, was instrumental in the successful conclusion of the landmark Indo-US Civilian Nuclear Deal.

Chatwal, who was among the select leaders invited for the Demo-cratic victory party in Washington, expressed the hope that Obama will be able to bring about real change and

his “progressive” ideas would help lift the country’s economy and enable the country forge wider alliances to fight terrorism and other such scourges.

Congratulating Obama on his “great victory”, the Indian National Overseas Congress (INOC), USA, expressed the hope that the new president would continue to seek strengthening Indo-US relations. In a statement, its General Secre-tary George Abraham said that

both India and the United States have common and pluralistic tra-ditions and need to work together in resolving complex problems fac-ing the world.

“The last few years under the Bush administration has seen ties between US and India grow cul-minating in the landmark civilian deal,” he said, adding that INOC expects the relations to get further boost under Obama.

‘Obama’s victory will inspire world’

Indian-American community welcomes Obama as US President

AHMEDABAD, NOVEM-BER 5 (AGENCIES): Gu-jarat ranks tenth in the country in terms of Infant Mortality Rate (IMR), barely making it to the list of top ten states having less number of infant deaths per thousand live births, as per the Sample Registration System (SRS) bulletin.

The SRS bulletin, re-leased by the Registrar Gen-eral of India, for October 2008 said total IMR for Gu-jarat is 52, with IMR for male child at 50 and female child at 54. The SRS is a large-scale demographic survey for providing reliable annual estimates of birth rate, death rate and other fertility and mortality indicators at the national and sub-national levels. SRS is spread across all states and Union terri-

tories and covers about 1.4 million households and 7.01 million population.

Gujarat is at the 10th po-sition amongst the 19 states, classified as ‘Bigger States’ by the survey conducted across the country every year by the Central Government. States like Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Maha-rashtra, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal have done better than Gujarat, with less number of infant deaths.

However, the state’s IMR figures are better than the na-tional average which accord-ing to the SRS bulletin is 55, with male IMR at 55 and fe-male IMR 56. Kerala tops the chart with IMR at 13, while Madhya Pradesh at the bot-tom of the list with IMR at 72. Considering the data of last

ten years, the IMR in Guja-rat has come down from 62 in 1997 to 52 in 2007, an improve-ment by 10 points. The na-tional average for the same has come down from 71 in 1997 to 55 in 2007, which shows an improvement of 16 points. In 1997, Gujarat was ranked 7th among the 15 ‘Bigger States’, registering better IMR figures than Andhra Pradesh, As-sam, Bihar, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

Professor Dilip Mavlan-kar of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) here believes that the cause of higher Infant Mortality in Gujarat is due to neglect of health services by the State Government over the years. “The higher IMR in the Gujarat is because the State Government has been ne-

glecting the health services over the years. There have not been any specific inter-vention to check the high IMR in the state,” Mavlan-kar said. “Though there are some improvements in the IMR and Maternal Mortal-ity Rate (MMR) figures, the fundamentals required for a public health system are not in place,” he said.

“Introducing schemes like ‘Chiranjeevi Yojna’ en-couraging institutional de-liveries, cannot bring down the IMR instantly,” Mavlan-kar added. He said that there is a need for more child health officers in the state who can monitor child care system and provide interventions based on the information col-lected from across the state.

“Maharashtra has two doctors per primary health

centres, but Gujarat still has only one. Also, there is no proper data collection mecha-nism for the number of infant death is the state,” Mavlankar said, adding that the govern-ment is highly dependent on the health staff at the field level for collection of health related data. Additional di-rector, Family welfare, Vikas-ben Desai also admitted that the government has been slow in planning intervention to bring down the IMR.

“We have been slow on the IMR front. But now we have identified focus areas and are concentarting on it to bring down the IMR in the state,” Desai told reporters. “There is no one reason for high IMR. Factors like anae-mia and malnutrition also contribute to infant deaths,” she said adding, “We have

started maping of aneamic and malnourished children across the state. More such cases have been registered in the eastern tribal belt.”

The State health com-missioner, Amarjeet Singh had recently said that higher IMR, adverse sex ratio and malnutrition among children remain the prime concerns for the state health department. Singh, speaking at the func-tion, had said that though they have been able to bring down the Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR: number of maternal deaths per one lakh deliveries) in the state, they have not been able to make much difference in decreasing the IMR. He had also claimed that the percent-age of institutional deliveries in state has gone up from 63 percent in 2005-06 to 87 per-cent in 2008-09 (till August).

Members of the India chapter of Democrats Abroad cheer as they listen to U.S. President-elect Barack Obama’s speech on television in New Delhi, November 5. (AP Photo)

region. Obama’s tough stance on shipping of American jobs overseas had fed some talk in India about the future of its outsourcing industry, but the country’s main IT industry

lobby played down such fears.“NASSCOM shares many

of the same economic and diplo-matic goals outlined by President-elect Obama during the course of

his campaign,” India’s National Association of Software and Ser-vices Companies (NASSCOM) said in a statement. “Specifically, we support expanding the H1B

visa program so that highly skilled workers can help companies lead the way on innovation and contrib-ute additional jobs and economic growth in the United States.”

KATHMANDU, NO-VEMBER 5 (AGENCIES): A seven member high-level technical team from India which is here to find out long term solution to the flood in the Kosi area, visited the breached embankment site on Wednesday, according to Indian Embassy sources.

The team being led by chairman of Central Water Commission of India, AK Baja arrived here yesterday. Indian Ambassador to Nepal Rakesh Sood also accompa-nied the country’s technical team when it inspected the site today. The team went to

Biratnagar today to conduct on the spot inspection of the breach of embankment by Koshi river in Sunsari dis-trict. Nepalese team led by Joint Secretary at the Minis-try of Water Resources Shital Babu Regmee also accompa-nyed the Indian team during the inspection visit.

The Saptakosi River breached its embankment at West Kushaha in Sunsari district on August 18, affect-ing more than 60,000 people in Nepal and 3.2 million in Bihar. India has provided Rs 200 million for the victims of Koshi flood in the Nepalese

side and extended help to conduct maintenance and repair works to contain the breach of embankment.

After completing the tour of the affected areas in eastern Nepal the team will hold discussion with Nepal-ese officials in Kathmandu to seek durable solution to the problems related to Kosi flood, officials said. During the recently concluded bilat-eral talks between Nepalese and Indian officials in Kath-mandu, the two sides reached an agreement to contain the breached embankment by the end of March 2009.

Technical team to visit Kosi barrage

PHULBANI (ORISSA), NOVEMBER 5 (AGEN-CIES): After a month’s lull in violence ravaged Kandha-mal, suspected Maoists on Wednesday gunned down a local RSS leader sparking fresh tension in the area.

RSS leader Dhanu Prad-han, who was said to be on the Maoists’ hitlist, was gunned down by three suspected ex-tremists at Kumarigaon vil-lage under Brahmanigaon police station area in Kand-hamal at 1:00 PM, sources said. The Maoists had ear-lier claimed that they killed VHP leader Swami Laxam-ananda Saraswati on August

23 which sparked communal violence in the state.

“We have information that a person has shot dead, but we are yet to confirm on the identity of the victim and the killers,” DIG, South-ern Range, R S Koche told PTI over phone. Senior of-ficials, including Kandha-mal Superintendent of Po-lice Praveen Kumar, along with CRPF personnel, have rushed to the spot. “We have rushed additional forces, in-cluding the CRPF to the vil-lage which is nearly 20 km from Brahmanigaon police station,” an official at the po-lice station said.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates speaks at the launch of Microsoft DreamSpark software in New Delhi,November 5. DreamSpark is a free software for the students around the world with access to the latest Microsoft developer and designer tools. (AP Photo)

Rohit Monserratte, 22, left, son of Goa state Education Minister Atanasio Monserratte, obscured 2nd right, walks towards a police station in Goa, November 4. Ro-hit Monserratte was arrested Tuesday nearly a month after he was accused of raping a 14-year-old German girl in the south Indian state of Goa, local police said. Monserratte was charged with rape and could be sen-tenced to life in prison if convicted. (AP Photo)

NEW DELHI, NOVEM-BER 05 (ANI): The Army on Wednesday denied arrest of Lieutenant Colonel Srikant Purohit by Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) in con-nection with the September 29 Malegaon blast. The Army offi-cer, who came under the scanner for his alleged role in the blasts, was stationed at the Army Edu-cation Corps Training College and Centre at Pachmarhi in Madhya Pradesh. He was doing a course in Arabic at the Army Education Corps College.

“The officer is not under arrest. He has been accord-ingly detained by the ATS for the questioning. The Army Headquarters will take a fur-ther view on the matter based on progress of investigation by the ATS an availability of ad-ditional evidence, if any,” said Veerendra Singh, APRO Army. He further said that the ATS af-

ter registering the FIR against alleged involvement of Lt Colo-nel Purohit with other suspects in Malegaon blast case sought permission from the Army Headquarters for questioning the officer under detention and not under arrest.

“After considering legal as-pects and with a view to fully assist in thorough and objec-tive investigation by the ATS, the Army accorded the permis-sion to question the officer,” Singh added. The ATS began interrogating Lt Colonel Puro-hit after his name cropped up in investigations following the arrest of two retired Army offi-cers for their role in the Maleg-aon blast. Purohit is suspected to have helped bomb blast ac-cused Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, retired Army Major Ramesh Upadhyaya and his associate Sharad Kulkarni in procuring RDX used in the blasts.

‘Lt Col Purohit detained, not arrested’

Infant Mortality: Gujarat barely makes it to top-10 listRSS leader shot dead by

suspected Maoists in Kandhamal

MUMBAI, NOVEMBER 5 (CNN-IBN): The ATS has ar-rested Lt Col Srikant Purohit claiming he’s directly involved in the Malegaon blasts. The ATS claims that Purohit has been ar-rested since he’s a close associ-ate of the arrested retired Major Ramesh Upadhyay and is said to have sent atleast 5 SMSes to him. An ATS source shared the SMSes exclusively with CNN-IBN.

The ATS has claimed that messages like ‘the cat is out of the basket’ were sent after ATS start-ed zeroing in on Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and her associates and ‘Singh has sung’ after the Sad-hvi was arrested. Other SMSes said ‘we are on the radar of ATS’ and ‘change the SIM card’. The Police also claim that they have evidence of Lt Col Purohit having

attended a meeting with the sad-hvi, retired Major Upadhyay and another accused Ramnarayan Singh who is absconding.

According to ATS this meet-ing transpired on September 16 on the grounds of Bhonsala Mili-tary school in Nashik. The Cen-tre aid it was a matter of “grave concern” that evidence collected pointed to the involvement of an Army officer in terror acts. “It is a matter of grave concern that such a person (Lt Colonel) is found to be involved there. The investi-gating agencies arrest any person only after gathering sufficient ev-idence,” Union Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal told reporters in New Delhi. Jaiswal added that the police wouldn’t detain army officers without proper evidence.

Uma slaps party leaderCHHINDWARA, NOVEMBER 5 (AGENCIES): Bhartiya Janashakti Party (BJS) president Uma Bharti on Wednesday slapped her party’s district general secretary Anil Rai, believed to be close to BJS’ break-away faction, in full public view near the government circuit house here. Party sourc-es said Bharti got infuriated when Rai was supposedly disturbing a meeting between Bharti and several persons by repeatedly calling them over their mobile phones.

Rai, who is a supporter of BJS breakaway faction led by Prahlad Patel, was asking people to come out of the meeting and that annoyed Bharati, sources said. Bharti asked Rai to get down from his car and slapped him twice in front of people and party workers. However, Bharti later told a press conference that Rai was like her brother and she had a right to “love or hit him”. “Rai was violating the model code of con-duct and therefore, invited my wrath,” she said. However, Bharti refused to disclose how Rai was violating the model code of conduct. Rai, who was also present at the press conference, said Bharti was like his elder sister and she had the right to “beat him or love him”.Bharti also paid a visit to Rai’s residence after the incident.

ATS says clinching SMSes, proofs

The Morung ExpressWednesday

5 November 2008Dimapur 9INTERNATIONAL

WASHINGTON, NO-VEMBER 5 (IHT): Even during the darkest hours of his presidential campaign, Senator Barack Obama of Il-linois held on to his improb-able, unshakable conviction that America was ready to step across the color line. On Tuesday, America leaped. Millions of voters - white and black, Hispanic and Asian, biracial and multi-racial — put their faith and the future of their country into the hands of a 47-year-old black man who made history both because of his race and in spite of it.

African-Americans wept and danced in the streets on Tuesday night, declar-ing that a once-reluctant nation had finally lived up to its democratic promise. Strangers of all colors ex-ulted in small towns and big cities. And white voters marveled at what they had wrought in turning a page on the country's bitter racial history. "It brought tears to my eyes to see the lines," said Bob Haskins, a black main-tenance worker at an Atlanta church, where scores of col-lege students voted on Tues-day. "For these young folks, this is a calling. Everything that Martin Luther King talked about is coming true today."

Tobey Benas, a re-tired teacher who voted for Obama in Chicago, also sa-vored the moment: "I can't believe how far we've come," said Benas, who is white. "This goes very deep for me." In a country long divided, Obama had a singular ap-peal: He is biracial and Ivy League educated; a stirring speaker who shoots hoops and quotes the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr; a politi-cian who grooves to the rap-per Jay-Z and loves the lyri-cism of the cellist Yo Yo Ma; a man of remarkable control and startling boldness.

He was also something completely new: an African-American presidential can-didate without a race-based agenda. And his message of unity and his promise of a new way of thinking seemed to inspire - or least offer some reassurance - to a country staggered by two wars, a convulsing economy and sometimes bewildering global change. Americans, of course, have not sud-denly become colorblind or forgotten old wounds. But millions of white citizens clearly decided Obama was preferable to the alternative, even if some had to swallow hard when they walked into the voting booth.

"In difficult economic times, people find the price of prejudice is just a little bit too high," said Governor Michael Easley of North Carolina, a white Demo-

crat. "They're saying, 'We don't care what your race is. If you can make things better, we're for you.' " Eas-ley said he knew big chang-es were coming when he passed a pickup on the road a few weeks ago. The white driver, who looked like he had been hunting, was wear-ing camouflage apparel and had a gun rack in his truck. Easley said he was sure he was looking at a McCain supporter - until he saw the Obama stickers plastered on the door.

"I thought to myself, 'We might be winning now,' " Easley said. "We could cross that chasm, we could cross the Rubicon this time." Confident in the country's ability to move beyond ra-cial politics, Obama had his finger on the pulse of a nation in transition. Day by day, year by year, racial tensions have eased as black and white classmates giggle over scribbled notes, co-workers gossip over cups of coffee, predominantly white audiences bond with Oprah and people have grown ac-customed to black execu-tives on Wall Street, black movie stars in Hollywood and black cabinet secretar-ies in the Oval Office.

Still, the fact that Amer-icans would be willing, at last, to elect a black presi-dent stunned many schol-ars, politicians and advo-cates for civil rights. They remain keenly aware of the nation's record of denying black aspirations - from the time African slaves were forced to these shores nearly 400 years ago, to the broken promises of Reconstruction, to the bloody resistance to the civil rights movement in the 1960s, to the last lynch-ing of a black man in 1981. "The history of the coun-try is such that you wonder when, if ever, certain things will ever happen," said Rep-resentative James Clyburn, a South Carolina Democrat who is 68. "You sit down and you say, 'How did the Lord allow me to be a part of all this? Why not my mother and father or their parents? Why me?' "

Henry Louis Gates Jr., the Harvard scholar of Afri-can-American history, said that the election rivaled the day in 1862 when President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation and the day 101 years later when the Rev. Martin Lu-ther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. Then Gates declared, "There's never been a moment like this in our lifetime, ever." For older blacks, Obama's victory was particularly mo-mentous. They marveled as they compared the scenes of white policemen beating black marchers in the 1960s

Obama moves America beyond racial politics

to those from this year's cam-paign rallies where thou-sands of white people waved American flags and chanted, "O-ba-ma! O-ba-ma!"

Richard Hatcher, who became one of the nation's first black mayors when he was elected in 1967 to lead Gary, Indiana, said he be-lieved the election would re-shape the perceptions that blacks and whites have of each other. "That's the great hope," Hatcher said. "We do not have to be absolutely ob-sessed with the issue of race anymore. There's no reason why the vision of America cannot be real." A century or so ago, such optimism was unthinkable. Before the Civ-il War, only two black people - a justice of the peace and a township clerk - had man-aged to get elected to public office in the entire country.

The prospects for black politicians were so dim that Frederick Douglass, the for-mer slave and abolitionist, when asked what he might do as president, dismissed the question as absurd, say-ing, "No such contingency has even one chance in 60 million to be realized." Af-ter black men won the right to vote in 1870, they sent 23 African-Americans to Con-gress over the next three de-cades. But by 1901, when the last black lawmaker of that era left Capitol Hill, South-ern whites had disenfran-chised blacks, using, among other devices, the poll tax, intimidation and violence.

By the time Obama an-nounced his White House bid last year, though, white voters had elected black members of Congress, state legislators, mayors, even gov-

ernors. This year, 70 percent of white adults surveyed in a New York Times/CBS News poll said the United States was ready to elect a black president. Still, most of the political establishment - black and white — thought that Obama had no chance. Previous black presidential candidates had never drawn significant white votes. And Obama, only the third black lawmaker ever elected to the Senate, had an unusual biography — a white moth-er from Kansas, black father from Kenya, a childhood in Hawaii and Indonesia - and a relatively thin résumé.

But once the primary season started, it became clear that Obama had a persona and a message that resonated deeply with vot-ers. Variously a soaring ora-tor, a sober policy wonk, an

THIMPHU, NOVEMBER 5 (REUTERS): He was first feted as "Prince Charming" and has now been acclaimed the "People's King". Bhutan's 28-year-old Oxford-educated monarch has already won hearts at home and abroad. On Thursday, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck takes on a more solemn responsi-bility, when he is formally crowned -- by his own father -- as the tiny Himalayan na-tion's fifth king.

Already he is showing signs that he can emerge from his father's shadow and become a powerful symbol of stability, unity and at the same time of youthful vigour, in a country still grappling with its gradual move into the modern world. His father, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, will be a hard act to follow. The 52-year-old is a formida-ble man, who ran this deeply traditional land for three de-cades, opening it to the out-side world, imposing democ-racy and then abdicating.

The father still com-mands love, respect, awe and even fear in the Land of the Thunder Dragon. The son, in his largely ceremonial new role and relieved of the burden of governance after the introduction of parlia-mentary democracy, is an

altogether different person, gentler, more approachable. "He's got his own style, he is very natural with the peo-ple," said Kinley Dorji, man-aging director of state-owned newspaper Kuensel. "He has that charisma."

The new king displayed his charisma in bucketloads on Saturday, spending the whole day mingling with crowds as he made his way back to the capi-tal Thimphu, often on foot, af-ter another sacred coronation ritual in the central town of Punakha. Babies were kissed, old friends hugged and every-one apparently awestruck. As he walked into Thimphu, a crowd of thousands fell silent. "I am not saying he is perfect, we will have to see," said one witness who preferred not to be named. "But in terms of PR he has got these extraordinary qualities."

Visiting Thailand in 2006, the young prince got the sort of reception usually reserved for pop stars, huge crowds and even screaming girls turn-ing out for a glimpse of the man they nicknamed "Prince Charming". Bhutan's prime minister and royal family friend, Jigmi Thinley, says the young king is very com-passionate, gentle and kind, a man who loves children and was always liked in the royal

household -- not your average spoilt crown prince. "He is not at all into the kingly pur-suits," Thinley told Reuters in an interview. "He never liked to hunt even as a child -- and hunting is something a king must do -- and I have never seen him in a fast car." As a prince, Wangchuck famously adopted a young village boy who had congenital eye prob-lems, sending him for treat-ment abroad that saved his sight. He took over as king two years ago -- the corona-tion has had to wait for an as-trologically auspicious date -- and has already expanded a royal welfare system that helps the rural poor.

His formal role under the new constitution is very limited, but Bhutan's new monarch will continue to provide moral leadership. And already there are signs the new king has an inde-pendent mind to go with his looks. His father famously set out the concept of Gross National Happiness (GNH), the idea that spiritual and mental well-being matter as much as gross national prod-uct, that material gain should not come at the expense of the environment or culture. The new king says each gen-eration has to interpret GNH in its own way and is subtly

People’s king’ emerges from father's shadow‘Indians will not pardon LTTE for killing Rajiv’COLOMBO, NOVEMBER 5 (PTI): SRI Lankan Prime Min-ister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake has said that no Indian citizen "with feelings" will pardon the LTTE for the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and is hopeful that India will extend its assistance to "defeat terrorism". "The (Sri Lankan) Government is of the firm view that India will extend its fullest assistance to defeat terrorism and provide relief measures to the people in the North and the East," Wickramanayake told Parlia-ment. This is also due to the strong bonds of friendship that the Government of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has forged with the political leadership of India, he told the House yesterday. The premier opening the Emergency debate said: "In-dia is our longstanding friend. India and Sri Lanka have always acted with mutual trust and cooperation as a result of the long-standing historical ties between the two countries," the state run Daily News quoted him as saying. "If the people of India remem-ber their past, they would feel the pressure exerted by LTTE ter-rorism. The LTTE killed a great Indian leader. We believe any Indian citizen with feelings will not pardon the LTTE," he said.

turning the idea on its head -- a vibrant economy, he says, is the very foundation on which national happiness can be built. Unemployment is rising sharply among the young, and social problems such as drugs use and crime are mounting. Bhutan's weakness, says the young Wangchuck, is its economy -- in a world that demands economic excellence.

"Now if we can build a strong economy, we will have the unshakable foundations for a vibrant democracy," he said. "This will be the means through which we will achieve Gross National Hap-piness and fulfil the aspira-tions of our people." Those aspirations are rising all the time as materialism makes inroads into mainly Bud-dhist Bhutan, and the young king knows his country has many challenges ahead. He is already reaching out to the younger generation to face those challenges together. "I enjoy talking to you not just because it is my duty," he told a group of graduates last month, "but because we will be starting our lives together and ending our careers to-gether." "When we retire 20 or 30 years later, let us pass the country proudly into younger hands."KIng Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck

Kenyan's in Kisumu, Western Kenya, Wednesday November 5, celebrates the victory of president-elect Barack Obama in the American presidential election. Barack Obama's Kenyan relatives and Africans across the continent celebrated his victory Wednesday, staying up all night or waking before dawn to cheer in America's first black president. (AP Photo)

urgent promoter of change and a steady leader, he dis-played a gift for finding consensus that let him draw support from people who might disagree with each other. African-Americans, wary at first of a candidate who had not emerged from the civil rights movement or the black church, soon em-braced him. And though he struggled to win over white, working-class voters, many whites were attracted to a candidate who rarely talked about race and focused on their concerns about the war in Iraq, health care and the economy.

His biracial background may have reassured voters who might otherwise have felt uneasy, said Governor James Doyle of Wiscon-sin, a white Democrat. "He has understood that occa-sionally white people say things that can be hurtful and can still be wonderful, loving people." Yet Obama also expressed pride in his African-American identity. Gates, the Harvard profes-sor, called Obama "the post-modern race man." "He can wear it, he can take it off, he can put it back on. It's just an aspect of his identity," Gates said. "People don't see him primarily as black. I think people see him primarily as an agent of change."

Obama is a student of history, and he turned to it in delivering the speech in March that many believed saved a candidacy threatened by his ties to his former pas-tor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., whose 2003 "God damn America" sermon became no-torious. The senator spoke of the legacy of slavery, of black grievance and white resent-ment, and of the possibility of redemption. "I have never been so naïve as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candi-dacy - particularly a candida-cy as imperfect as my own," he said then. "But what we know - what we have seen - is that America can change."

"The profound mistake of Reverend Wright's ser-mons is not that he spoke about racism in our society," Obama added. "It's that he spoke as if our society was static, as if no progress has been made." Civil rights leaders cautioned that much work remains to be done. But Lattrell Foster of Chi-cago, 32, who voted for the first time on Tuesday, was still close to tears as he con-sidered the enormity of the nation's progress and vowed to tell his children about it. "Just like my grandparents told me what it was like dur-ing the civil rights move-ment," he said. "I feel like this night is a culmination of that history."

(Top) A selection of the front pages of Spanish newspapers covering Barack Obama’s victory in the U.S. Presidential election is seen in Madrid. (Bottom) President-elect Ba-rack Obama and his wife, Michelle, left, and Vice President-elect Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, wave to the crowd after Obama’s acceptance speech at his election night party at Grant Park in Chicago, Tuesday night. (AP Photo)

Russia threatens to deploy missiles in EuropeMOSCOW, NOVEMBER 5 (REUTERS): Russian President Dmitry Medvedev threatened on Wednesday to station new missiles near Poland's border in response to U.S. plans to deploy an anti-missile system and pro-posed extending the presidential term to six years. In his first annual address to the nation, he defended Russia's war with Georgia, appealed to nationalism and attacked Washington's "selfish" foreign policy and "economic blun-ders" which he said caused the global financial crisis.

"To neutralise -- if necessary -- the (U.S.) anti-missile system, an Iskander missile system will be deployed in the Kaliningrad region," Medvedev said, referring to a Rus-sian enclave that borders Poland, a member of the Euro-pean Union. "Naturally, we are also considering using for the same purpose the resources of Russia's navy." Russia would electronically jam the U.S. system, parts of which are due to be deployed in Poland and the Czech Republic, and Moscow would scrap plans to stand down three Cold War-era nuclear missile regiments, the president said.

Medvedev's 85-minute address also included surprise proposals to extend the presidential term from four to six years, lengthen legislators' terms by a year and make it easier for small parties to win parliamentary represen-tation. These groups, which are among the most critical of the government, were eliminated from the legislature under the eight-year rule of Medvedev's predecessor, Vladimir Putin. The president did not say whether the extended term would apply to himself or to the next presi-dent to be elected in 2012.

Political analysts have speculated that Putin, who stepped down earlier this year as president after serving the maximum two terms allowed by the constitution, may return in 2012. He is now prime minister and remains powerful. One day after Barack Obama won the U.S. pres-idential election, Medvedev reserved his harshest criti-cism for the United States, blaming its "selfish" foreign policy for Russia's brief war in August with Georgia, a U.S. ally.

"The conflict in the Caucasus was used as a pretext for sending NATO warships to the Black Sea and then for the forceful foisting on Europe of America's anti-missile systems, which in its turn will entail retaliatory measures by Russia," Medvedev said in his speech, broadcast live on television and radio. The war with Georgia over the reb-el region of South Ossetia was "among other things, the result of the arrogant course of the U.S. administration which hates criticism and prefers unilateral decisions," Medvedev said.

Speaking in the Kremlin's ornate white-marbled St George's Hall to around 1,000 parliamentarians, top gov-ernment officials, religious leaders and journalists, Med-vedev linked the war in Georgia to the global financial crisis. Both began as localised events but took on broader significance. "We will overcome the consequences of the world economic crisis and will come out of it even stron-ger than we were," Medvedev, who took office in May, said to applause.

But the financial and Caucasus crises also showed the need for fundamental reform of global institutions, he added. "The lessons of the mistakes and crises of 2008 have proved to all responsible nations that the time has come to act, and it is necessary to radically reform the (international) political and economic system," the presi-dent said. Russia's war with Georgia handed Moscow a quick military victory but a serious defeat with interna-tional investors, who dumped Russian assets in a selling spree that made the stock market one of the world's worst performing this year.

Medvedev was defiant over Moscow's intervention in Georgia. "Our people are spiritually and morally rich, we have things we can be proud of, we have things to love and protect and we have things we can aspire to. For these reasons, we will not step back in the Caucasus," he said to applause.

Although Russia's heavily-indebted oligarchs have been hit by the financial crisis, the Kremlin has played down the impact on the wider economy and said repeat-edly it originated in the United States -- a point the presi-dent made again on Wednesday. "Inflating the cash bub-ble to stimulate their own growth, they not only made no effort to coordinate their actions with the other partici-pants in global markets but also neglected the elementary sense of proportion and did not listen to repeated warn-ings from their partners," he said.

Medvedev, who trained as a lawyer before his career in public life, emphasised in his speech what he said were Russia's key values -- freedom, democracy, fairness and the rule of law. Putin listened to his protege from the front row of the audience, flanked by the leaders of both houses of parliament and the Russian Orthodox Church leader, Patriarch Alexiy II. Yeltsin introduced the address to the nation in 1994, shortly after he had crushed a rebellion by parliament and held elections to the State Duma, in an at-tempt to restore his authority as a national leader.

Thursday6 November 2008 10 Dimapur The Morung ExpressSPORTS

LIVERPOOL, NOVEM-BER 5 (REUTERS): Steven Gerrard scored a controver-sial penalty deep into inju-ry time to earn Liverpool a 1-1 draw with Atletico Ma-drid in Champions League Group D on Tuesday. The Liverpool captain converted from the spot after he was challenged in the box by Mariano Pernia and Swed-ish referee Martin Hansson awarded a debatable penalty kick. The Spanish side had thought Maxi Rodriguez's superbly taken 37th minute strike was enough to book their place in the knock-out stages of the competition.

"If it was in the middle of the pitch it would be a free-kick. It was in the box and it was penalty. We deserved at least to score," Liverpool coach Rafa Benitez said of the late penalty. Both teams, who are five points clear at the top of the group, must now wait for their next games to confirm their progression to the next round. The man-ner of the draw was harsh on Atletico, having gone ahead through a goal of supreme quality by Rodriguez.

The Argentine deftly slipped past defender Jamie Carragher in the box to score from Antonio Lopez's smart

overlapping run and cross. Liverpool badly missed the finishing power of Spain striker Fernando Torres, who sat out for the second time against his former club with a long standing hamstring injury. In his absence the better opportunities fell to defender Daniel Agger who was unable to take any of the three chances that came his way before Gerrard was once again called upon to rescue his side.

"It was important not to lose because we are on the top of the group," Benitez added. "It would be better if we had won though. "We kept attacking and that is something we had to keep doing because it is the way to change results." Atletico assistant coach Ignacio Am-briz refused to let the con-troversial penalty detract from his side's impressive display.

"I was a long way from the incident to appreciate it fully," he said. "It just shows how quickly things chance in football. One minute we are in the next phase and suddenly that happens. We just have to carry on playing. "The point is useful. We have two more games and let's see if we can top the group."

Gerrard penalty saves Liverpool

Liverpool's Steven Gerrard scores from the penalty spot against Athletico Madrid during their Champions League, Group D, soccer match at Anfield Stadium, Liverpool, Tuesday, November 4. (AP Photo)

NAGPUR, NOVEMBER 5 (REUTERS): Prepara-tions for Australia's final test against India have been less than perfect as nei-ther team have been able to practice at the match venue, captain Ricky Pon-ting said. Australia trail the hosts 1-0 in the four-match series going into Thurs-day's final encounter at a new stadium. The world's top ranked team are look-ing to avoid their first series defeat in three years.

"It is not ideal prepara-tion, especially on a venue that has not been used in in-ternational cricket before," Ponting told a news confer-ence on Wednesday. "You'd like to get there and under-stand the wicket a little bit more. But that's what you've got." Both teams have prac-ticed at the old stadium the last two days. "I believe that the training facilities at the test venue aren't ready yet. But it is the same situation for the Indian players.

"It is a pretty unusual situation for us to be in." Australia have not lost a series home or away since the 2005 Ashes in England. India won the second test at Mohali by 320 runs. The first and third tests were drawn.

We will take advantage of Gambhir's absence

‘Preparations for final test not ideal’

NAGPUR, NOVEMBER 5 (PTI): Australia will take advantage of the absence of in-form Gautam Gambhir in the Indian top order and put pressure on the new opening combination in the fourth and final Test start-ing here tomorrow, visiting skipper Ricky Ponting said today.

"He (Gambhir) has played very well from the first Test and has given good start to the Indian team with (Virender) Sehwag. They have also run very well and have good understand-ing. There will be a bit more pressure on the middle or-

der (with Gambhir's ban). We have to take advantage of this," Ponting said at a press conference at the old VCA stadium after team practice session.

Ponting backed his much-criticised bowling at-tack saying it was capable of taking 20 wickets and hinted uncapped off-spinner Jason Krejza could be fielded to-morrow as the pitch seems spin-friendly.

"I think we have the bowlers who can take 20 wickets. I have full confi-dence in them. I had seen the wicket yesterday and it looks like a typical Indi-

an wicket with no grass. It seems it will turn after three days of being a good batting wicket. We will be looking at fielding (off-spinner) Jason Krejza," he said.

The Australian captain hoped that his team could make the last few days in international cricket of re-tiring former India skipper Sourav Ganguly unpleasant. "He's been a great servant of Indian cricket and has led the country well. I know he will enjoy his last few days in cricket. But I hope we can make it unendurable for him by winning here," said the Tasmanian.

Azo to grace CWA wrestling finale

PHEK, NOVEMBER 5 (MEXN): On November 4, 3rd day of Chakhesang Wrestling Association (CWA) month long camping programme, Executive Engineer (Power) Phek Er Posetso, address the campers during the morning session. In his short address, he stressed on the importance of punctual-ity and self dedication of a sports person. A good sportsper-son should maintain strict routine in all his activities for maintaining proper time factor enable ones to achieve his desiring goal sooner or later, he said adding that dedicating to his/her assignment is equally required. Proper dieting for wrestlers is necessary for a wrestler to keep his body fit and healthy. During the evening session, Deputy Inspector of Schools (DIS) Phek, Muzapu, exhort the wrestlers where he said, one should not gave up his schooling if he really wishes to be come a good sportsperson for education is basi-cally required when one enters up to the State and national level. ‘You all are in youthful stage where you need to do a lot for your society for youths are regarded as the backbone of the society’ he said, adding that the skills you gained during this camp should implement with an action plan of your society when you go back home. On November 5, during the morning session, District Sports Officer (DSO) Phek, Zhodi Pusa, urged the wrestlers to equip with firm determi-nation in their future endeavors. Obedient & punctuality is basically required for every sportsperson, where time should be considered as an important asset for every sportsperson. Reminding the wrestlers with an instance of Napoleon, who fails in the battle field of waterloo only because he fails for a few minutes; he therefore urged them to be well aware of such incidents and acquired those as their daily weapons. Appreciating the CWA for taken up a commendable job in spite of financial difficulties, he further appeals all the of-ficers and well wishers to contribute something towards the mission and be part with the CWA in the month long jour-ney. Judicial Magistrate, Phek, Zasheveyi was consented to exhort the campers in today’s evening session. According to CWA Finance Secretary, Kuve-o Vadeo, an alteration of the grand finale program of the camp was taken up in its Execu-tive sitting at Phek, where the Naga Style wrestling competi-tion along with the exhibition of national style will take place on 20th November 2008 at CBCC, Golden Jubilee Ground, Pfutsero, a handsome cash would be awarded to the 4 best wrestlers in the days competition, where only registered campers are entitled to compete in the said competition. Vadeo further added that Kuzholuzo (Azo) Nienu, Minister for Health & family Welfare, Nagaland was consented to grace the occasion as the Chief Guest. The CWA invites all the sports lovers from the Chakhesang community includ-ing officers and NGO functionaries like CPO, CSU, CYF, CMA, PDSA, CWWS, and CBCC etc. to come and witness the competition and be a part of the mega events. Mean-while the CWA convey its special invitation to all the former champions and position holders of Area level, CWA, NWA to attend and witness the competition. Vadeo further added that the day will wind up with a grand feast.

Reverse swing was like a curse on us: Gilchrist

SYDNEY, NOVEMBER 5 (PTI): Despite managing to use reverse-swing to potent effect in their successful 2004 tour of India, Australian team felt "cursed" by the same technique in the lost 2005 Ashes against England, reveals former vice-captain Adam Gilchrist. "The salient point in England is that not only could we not get it to reverse swing, we weren't game to try anything, we had this feeling of a curse on us," Gilchrist wrote in his autobiography 'True Colours'. "Occasionally in a meeting someone would say, '... Let's just do it' but we'd say no: 'as soon as we start going down that line we'll get busted'," he said. Gilchrist said he unravelled the mystery of England's reverse swing 18 months later during the 2006 Champions Trophy match in Jaipur when Troy Cooley, who assisted Mi-chael Vaughan's men in the Ashes, was Australia's coach. "We were playing England in Jaipur our first clash since the 2005 Ashes, and nervously saying: 'what are they going to do this time?' "Then, just before we warmed up, our bowling coach Troy Cooley said: 'Boys, today, eyes in the middle, no looking elsewhere. Just worry about us'. "I'll never forget that. It was like a boxing glove came out and smacked me in the head and said : 'You idiot. That's what you were doing for the best part of three months in England -- worrying about what the opponent is going to do'. "It's no coincidence that Troy, a Tas-manian, had been England's bowling coach during the 2005 Ashes. They knew they had us worrying about them."

Schumacher backs Massa to come back stronger

MILAN, NOVEMBER 5 (REUTERS): Ferrari's Felipe Massa can overcome the disappointment of losing the world title to Lewis Hamilton and challenge again next year, said seven-times Formula One champion Michael Schumacher. McLaren's Hamilton took the crown after sneaking into fifth place on the final bend of Sunday's dramatic Brazilian Grand Prix to deny Massa, who streaked to victory in his home race. "I congratulate Lewis Hamilton and I am send-ing very warm greetings to Felipe and all our guys in Brazil," former Ferrari driver Schumacher told his official website (www.michael-schumacher.de). "Felipe can leave that race with his head up, as with this performance he surely has con-vinced all the people who still had doubts about his driving skills. He will for sure attack again next year." Schumacher, who tested a Ducati Superbike in Portugal on Monday, was stunned by the finish in the season-ending race in Brazil. "What a finale. I have never seen anything like this, not as a racer and not as a spectator -- you can probably only say it was fate." Massa said he had spoken to record titleholder Schumacher and wanted to talk with Briton Hamilton, at 23 the sport's youngest champion, once the dust has settled. "Schumi called me and and complimented me. I want to meet Hamilton and his dad to tell them they deserved the title," he told Gazzetta dello Sport.

Mohamad Yousuf puts behind 'misunderstanding', re-joins ICL

NEW DELHI, NOV 5 (PTI): Mohammad Yousuf's flip-flop with the Indian Cricket League (ICL) today culminated with the Pakistani run-machine re-joining the rebel league after fighting them in the court. "There was some misunderstanding and I was misguided as well. I was under the impression that ICL authorities would not allow me to play for the national team. But they are actually ready to release me whenever I'm on national duty and that's why I'm back," said the right-hander, who joins the Lahore Badshah squad in the ICL. Yousuf had joined ICL last year before Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) persuaded him to dump the rebel league and promised a place in the BCCI-backed In-dian Premier League (IPL). Unfortunately for him, no IPL franchise bid for him in the landmark players' auction and Yousuf's crisis only compounded as the Essel group-bankrolled ICL authorities moved to the court against him for breaching contract. ICL Business Head Himanshu Mody said everything stood settled and Yousuf would make his ICL debut day after tomor-row. "There was some misunderstanding and he was

BRUSSELS, NOVEM-BER 5 (REUTERS): Barce-lona and Sporting advanced to the Champions League knockout stage while Inter Milan and Chelsea missed the chance to guarantee their places on Tuesday. A 1-1 draw at home to Basel was enough for Barca to qualify from Group C alongside Portugal's Sporting, who beat Ukraine's Shakhtar Donetsk 1-0 thanks to Bra-zilian striker Derlei's 73rd-minute strike.

Substitute Lionel Messi put the Spaniards en route to the next phase when he fired the home side in front in the 62nd minute, though

Basel gave the Primera Liga leaders a fright with an equ-aliser from Eren Derdiyok eight minutes before the end. "It took us a bit of ef-fort to get into the match and exert our superiority," Barca coach Pep Guardiola said in a television inter-view. "But we have quali-fied for the last 16 and that's great news."

In the other matches, last season's runners-up Chelsea fell 3-1 at AS Roma and Serie A champions In-ter needed an 80th-minute header from striker Julio Cruz to salvage a 3-3 draw in Cyprus against a resil-ient Anorthosis Famagusta. Liverpool, the 2005 cham-pions, relied on a controver-sial stoppage-time penalty

by captain Steven Gerrard to secure a 1-1 home draw with Atletico Madrid and remain level on eight points with the Spaniards at the top of Group D.

Inter's draw, combined with Panathinaikos's 3-0 win at Werder Bremen, left Group B wide open with two matches remaining. The Italians are top on eight points from four games, Anorthosis have five, Pana-thinaikos four and Werder three. Mario Balotelli and Marco Materazzi put Inter ahead twice against Fama-gusta, but a string of defen-sive errors allowed Cedric Bardon and Georgios Pa-

nagi to equalise twice.Another poor clearance

allowed Nikolaos Frousos to fire the home side in front five minutes after the break before substitute Cruz saved the Serie A side's blushes. "There were incredible in-dividual errors. They really were gifts even if Christmas is still a way off," Inter coach Jose Mourinho told reporters. Group A has a similarly tight look to it, with Chelsea on seven, one more than Roma and Girondins Bordeaux who beat CFR Cluj 2-1. The Romanians are still in con-tention with four points.

Defender Christian Pa-nucci put Roma ahead be-fore Mirko Vucinic struck twice at the start of the second half to end the Ital-

Barca and Sporting reach knockout stageian club's five-game losing streak. "It's a result that gives us a little breather, a little tranquillity," Roma coach Luciano Spalletti told a news conference. The Londoners pulled one back through captain John Terry in the 75th before having midfielder Deco sent off for a second yellow card five minutes later.

Despite the defeat Chel-sea manager Luiz Felipe Sco-lari remains confident his side will progress. "If we win one more game we are there. We'll have 10 points," he said. After their draw, Liverpool and Atletico are favourites to progress from Group D where Olympique Marseille and PSV Eindhoven are five points behind after the French side defeated their Dutch opponents 3-0.

The Spanish side thought Maxi Rodriguez's 37th minute strike had se-cured the win, but Gerard converted from the spot after he was challenged in the box by Mariano Pernia and Swedish referee Martin Hansson awarded a debat-able penalty kick. "I was a long way from the incident to appreciate it fully," Atlet-ico assistant coach Ignacio Ambriz said.

"It just shows how quick-ly things change in football. One minute we are in the next phase and suddenly that happens. "We just have to carry on playing."

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FC Barcelona´s Lionel Messi, from Argentina, left, celebrates his goal with his teammate Thierry Henry, from France, against FC Basel during a Champions League Group C soccer match at Camp Nou Stadium in Barcelona, Spain, Tuesday, November 4. (AP Photo)

Sporting's Derlei Silva, left, of Brazil, scores against Shakhtar Donetsk's Olexandr Kucher and goalkeeper Andriy Pya-tov, right, during their Group C Champions League soccer match at Alvalade stadium in Lisbon, Tuesday November 4. (AP Photo )

WOKING, NOVEMBER 5 (AP): Lewis Hamilton thanked McLaren person-nel for helping him become Formula One's youngest champion and said he plans to spend the rest of his career with the team.

The 23-year-old Briton drove around the lake at McLaren's technology cen-ter in an F1 car and received a big ovation from many of the 1,000 employees at the site. Hamilton, who has a 75-million-pound ($120 mil-lion; 94 million euro), five-year contract with McLaren, said he could never envision driving for anyone else.

"It's easy," he said. "I'm with the team I've always dreamed of being with and if you have the car of your dreams then why would you want to leave? The day I get in the car and don't have the motivation, maybe that's the time to get out but I want to see my career out with this team." Hamilton returned to Britain after finishing fifth in the Brazilian Grand Prix on Sunday, taking the season title by one point ahead of race winner Felipe Massa of Ferrari. "We have proved to everyone that we are the best team and we have the best car," said Hamilton, who is

also F1's first black champi-on. "We have been under so much pressure and we have lost together and won to-gether and this weekend we have won the world cham-pionship." He said retaining his title next season would depend on avoiding penal-ties and mistakes. "We want to make sure that we come out on top again and, for my part, I want to be even better," he said. "I'm even more deter-mined having had a taste of it." Hamilton shook hands and posed for pictures with employees amid a shower of confetti. His father, Anthony, and pop singer girlfriend Ni-cole Scherzinger were also on hand. "These trophies are a result of all your hard work and you should pat your-selves on the back," he said. "I love this team. I'm not go-ing anywhere."

Hamilton's visit came on the same day he received a congratulatory message from Queen Elizabeth II. "I'm delighted that you suc-ceeded in winning the For-mula One World Cham-pionship to become the youngest-ever champion," she wrote. "I send you my warmest congratulations on your remarkable and histor-ic achievement."

Lewis Hamilton thanks team at McLaren facility

CMYK

CMYK

The Morung Express ThursdayDimapur 116 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 - My Name Is Earl; 09:30 - Hope And Faith; 10:00 - Grey’s Anatomy; 11:00 - The Moment

Of Truth; 12:00 - Jimmy Kimmel; 13:00 - Shark; 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 - Less Than Perfect; 20:30 - Samantha Who?; 21:00 - The Moment Of Truth; 22:00 - Ghost Whisperer; 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

06:00 - Animal Planet Safari; 07:00 - Teleshopping; 08:00 - All New Planet’s Funniest Animals; 08:30 - Lords Of The Animals; 09:00 - Life Of Mammals; 10:00 - All New Planet’s Funniest Animals; 10:30 - Lemur Street; 11:00 - Max’s Big Tracks; 12:00 - Eye Of The Hunter; 13:00 - Corwin’s Quest; 14:00 - Animal Planet Safari; 15:00 - Planet Wild; 15:30 - Up Close And Dangerous; 16:00 - Wild Africa; 17:00 - Life Of Mammals; 18:00 - All New Planet’s Funniest Animals; 18:30 - Lords Of The

Animals; 19:00 - Max’s Big Tracks; 20:00 - Eye Of The Hunter; 21:00 - Planet Wild; 21:30 - Up Close And Dangerous; 22:00 - The Jeff Corwin Experience; 23:00 - Wild Africa; 00:00 - All New Planet’s Funniest Animals; 00:30 - Lords Of The Animals; 01:00 - Teleshopping; 02:00 - Petsburgh Usa; 03:00 - Monkey Business; 04:00 - Petsburgh Usa; 05:00 - Monkey Business

05:00 - Dil Apna Punjabi; 07:45 - Gtm Keshyog; 08:00 - Subah Ho Gayi Mamu; 09:15 - Farz; 13:30 - Dil Maange More; 16:30 - Coolie No. 1; 20:00 - Jimmy; 22:50 - Choddon Na Yaar; 01:20 - Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin; 05:00 - Diljale

06:00 - Telebrands; 07:00 - Animal Camera - Surveillance On Survival; 07:30 - Amazing Baby Videos; 08:00 - Wild Discovery; 09:00 - Science Frontiers; 10:00 - Michael Wood: The Story Of India; 11:00 - Mega Builders 2; 12:00 - Jeremy

Piven’s Journey Of A Lifetime; 13:00 - Planet Earth; 14:00 - Michael Wood: The Story Of India; 15:00 - Planet Food; 16:00 - Wild Discovery; 17:00 - Mega Builders 2; 18:00 - Wild India; 19:00 - Planet Earth; 20:00 - Wildest; 21:00 - Life In Cold Blood; 22:00 - Into Alaska With JeFf Corwin; 23:00 - Extreme Machines Ii; 00:00 - The Beauty Of Snakes; 01:00 - Telebrands; 02:00 - Extreme Machines Ii; 03:00 - Wild India; 04:00 - Into Alaska With Jeff Corwin; 05:00 - Extreme Machines Ii

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 - Grihasti;

10:30 - Hamari Devrani; 11:00 - Kayamath; 11:30 - Raja Ki Ayegi; 12:00 - Bidaai; 12:30 - Jahan Pe Basera Ho; 13:00 - Kumkum; 13:30 - Hamari Devrani; 14:00 - Karam; 14:30 - Grihasti; 15:00 - Kyunki Saas Bhi; 15:30 - Kis Desh Mein; 16:00 - Sangam; 16:30 - Santaan; 17:00 - Jahan Pe Basera Ho; 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; 21:00 - Bidaai; 21:30 - Kasturi; 22:00 - Kahaani Ghar; 23:00 - Kayamath; 23:30 - Jahan Pe Basera Ho; 00:00 - Kasturi; 00:30 - Kumkum; 01:00 - Bidaai; 01:30 - Kis Desh Mein; 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 - The New Adventures Of Winnie Pooh; 05:30 - Little Einsteins

04:50 - Piece Of The Action; 06:20 - Night At The Museum; 08:30 - Citizen Ruth; 10:35 - Dear Frankie; 12:45 - The Birdcage; 15:00 - The Substance Of Fire; 17:05 - In Too Deep; 19:05 -

Teaching Mrs. Tingle; 21:00 - Dirty Pretty Things; 23:00 - Lonely Hearts; 01:00 - Mrs. Parker And Vicious; 03:05 - On The Line; 04:35 - In Too Deep

0:30 - Uefa Champions League : Celtic V Man U; 3:15 - Uefa Champions League : - Arsenal V

Fenerhbache; 5:30 - Wwe Specials:cyber Sunday; 8:30 - Hockey Classics 200 - 7; 9:00 - Icl Hl’s - Chandigarh V Delhi; 10:00 - Uefa Champions League : - Arsenal V Fenerhbache; 12:00 - Uefa Champions League : Celtic V Man U; 14:00 - Great Centuries : Kumar Sangakkara 152; 14:30 - Icl Hl’s - Chandigarh V Delhi; 15:30 - Uefa Champions League H/L’s:; 16:30 - Wwe: Raw; 18:30 - Icl 20-20 - Preview: Mumbai V Hydrabad; 19:30 - Icl 20-20 : Mumbai V Hydrabad; 22:30 - Icl 20-20 - Review: Mumbai V Hydrabad; 23:00 - Sportsnight; 23:30 - Wwe: Raw

06:00 - The Butchers Wife; 08:15 - Revenge Of The Ninja; 10:00 - Making The Grade; 12:00 - The Last Boyscout; 14:00 - Trespass; 15:30 - Touch The Top Of The World; 17:15 - Max Knight: Ultra

Spy; 19:00 - Monster House; 21:00 - The Glimmer Man; 22:45 - Second In Command; 00:30 - Fortress 2: Re - Entry; 02:15 - Catch A Fire; 04:15 - Neil Simons The Odd Couple Ii

06:00 - Sant Nirankari; 06:30 - The Faith Show; 07:00 - Enjoying Everyday Life; 07:25 - Exposure Ek Nazar; 07:30 - Sales Slot; 07:55 - Exposure Jhalak; 08:00 - Teleshopping; 08:25 - Exposure 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 - Chhoti

Bahu; 13:30 - Rakhi; 14:00 - Teen Bahuraaniyaan; 14:30 - Jhoome Jiiya Re; 15:00 - Dulhann; 15:30 - Maayka; 16:00 - Saat Phere; 16:30 - Naaginn; 17:00 - Ranbir Rano; 17:30 - Betiyann; 18:00 - Kasamh Se; 18:30 - Chhoti Bahu; 19:00 - Vivaah; 19:30 - Parrivaar; 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; 23:55 - Exposure Ek Nazar; 00:00 - Asian Sky Shop; 00:55 - Exposure; 01:00 - Asian Sky Shop; 02:00 - Khana Khazana; 02:30 - Namaste Cinema; 03:00 - Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2009 - Spotlight; 03:30 - Kahani Ab Tak; 04:00 - Vivaah; 04:30 - Urja; 05:00 - Ramayan; 05:30 - Narseva Narayan Seva

06:00 - Hum Ladkiyan; 06:30 - Meet Mila De Rabba; 07:00 - Telebrands; 07:30 - Teleshopping; 08:30 - Har Dil Jo Pyar Karega; 12:00 - Hum Ladkiyan; 12:30 - Aathvaan Vachan; 13:00 - Comedy Circus; 13:30 - Sujata; 14:00 - Meet Mila De Rabba; 14:30 - Hum Ladkiyan; 15:00 - Aathvaan Vachan; 15:30 - Comedy Circus; 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 - Indian Idol 4; 20:00 - Meet MilA De Rabba; 20:30 - Hum Ladkiyan; 21:00 - Aathvaan Vachan; 21:30 - Babul Ka Aangann; 22:00 - Sujata; 22:30 - 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

6:00 - Numb3rs; 7:00 - Flipping Out; 8:00 - Chuck; 9:00 - Numb3rs; 11:00 - Early Edition; 12:00 - Afterworld; 12:03 -

World’s Most Amazing Videos; 1:00 - Ripley’s Believe It Or Not!; 2:00 - Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles; 3:00 - Axn Xtreme: India Vs Pakistan; 5:00 - Flipping Out; 6:00 - Numb3rs; 7:00 - Afterworld; 7:03 - Chuck; 8:00 - World’s Most Amazing Videos; 9:00 - Video Zonkers; 10:00 - The Amazing Race Asia; 11:00 - Moonlight; 12:00 - Afterworld; 12:03 - Video Zonkers; 1:00 - The Amazing RaCe Asia; 2:00 - Moonlight; 3:00 - Early Edition; 4:00 - Chuck; 5:00 - Flipping Out

05:30 - Shore Ditch; 07:00 - Charlie Chaplin; 07:30 - Infomercial; 08:00 - Ambush Bay; 10:20 - A Lot Like Love; 12:35 - The Hand That Rocks The Cradle; 14:55 - Blind Guy Driving; 17:00 - Hollywoods 10 Best; 17:30 - Turner And Hooch; 19:45 - Bringing Out The

Dead; 22:30 - Good Morning, Vietnam; 01:15 - Dont Move; 03:15 - Air Rage; 04:45 - Venom

06:00 - Madhur Jaffrey’s Flavours Of India; 06:30 - Uttaranchal; 07:00 - Food Paradise; 08:00 - Travel Spies; 09:00 - Adventures Of The Ladies Tailor; 09:30 -

Feast India; 10:00 - Shear Genius; 11:00 - Trading Spaces 4; 12:00 - Street Customs; 13:00 - I Do, Let’s Eat!; 13:30 - Indian Food Made Easy; 14:00 - Chhattisgarh - The Tribal Planet; 14:30 - Madhur Jaffrey’s Flavours Of India; 15:00 - Monster House; 16:00 - Food Paradise; 17:00 - La Ink; 18:00 - Project Runway 2; 19:00 - Indian Rendezvous; 19:30 - FInest Hotels In The World; 20:00 - Around The World; 21:00 - Europe’s Richest People; 22:00 - Dream Hotels; 22:30 - Feast Bazaar Year 2006; 23:00 - Vegas Vegas; 00:00 - Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations; 01:00 - Europe’s Richest People; 02:00 - Travel Spies; 03:00 - Take Home Chef 2; 03:30 - Cooking It; 04:00 - Shear Genius; 05:00 - Superhomes 2; 05:30 - Amazing Vacation Homes

Tennis legend Boris Becker has called off his engagement to Ales-sandra 'Sandy' Meyer-Wölden af-ter just three months. Becker con-

firmed the split to German magazine Bunte in a text message on Tuesday night, saying: 'Yes, it's true unfortunately.'

The sports star told his close

friends and family about the split over the weekend, the publication report-ed. Becker, 40, and Meyer-Wolden, 25, went public with their relationship in August after they were photographed holidaying together in Sardinia. The German sports star has known Meyer-Wolden since she was a child, when her

For France's flamboyant President Nicolas Sarkozy, Carla Bruni might be the hottest blonde, but Britons have voted her as the coolest celebrity in the world. The 40-year-old former Italian supermodel-turned singer rocketed to the top of the 'Alternative Cool List' with almost a quarter

of those questioned in the nationwide survey naming her as their favourite ce-lebrity personality. In fact, 22 per cent of the respondents placed Bruni, who is reported to have had flings with celebrities like Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton, on the top of the chart, 'The Daily Telegraph' reported.

The French First Lady has spent the year squarely in the public gaze -- marrying Nicolas Sarkozy, performing with Metallica and staying over

at Buckingham Palace while on a state visit to Britain to meet the Brit-ish Queen. She also famously posed naked before tying the knot with Sarkozy, and one of her saucy snaps was recently sold for 45,500 pounds to a secret bidder at a Christie's auction. Even in an interview to a life-style magazine a couple of months back, Bruni clearly expressed her

desire of having a baby with 53-year-old Sarkozy, admitting that her age could be a problem.

"I'm not pregnant and I regret it because I love it when I am. Will it happen? It is very difficult for me to say. However, it is more difficult when you are 40 than

when you are 25," she had said. The other notable figures in the poll are English actor and singer Sir Cliff Richard and former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney.

Charlize Theron has settled the $20 million breach of contract lawsuit against her, according to papers filed in Manhattan Federal Court Monday. The suit was filed last year, when Swiss watchmaker

Raymond Weil claimed that Theron had worn a Christian Dior watch during a press event in 2006, despite being paid "substantial funds" to exclusively wear Raymond Weil time-pieces during the time in question. While the details were not released, the papers do say that the suit will be discon-tinued as long as the terms of the settlement are completed within 30 days.

J ennifer Aniston has nothing but compliments for her Marley & Me

costar Owen Wilson. "Owen Wilson is so divine in this film," the actress tells the L.A. Times. "I've never seen him play a part like this. He was a man; he was a husband; he was a father." In a reference to some of Wilson's personal struggles, Aniston adds, "I feel like, how brave of him, to walk through the year that he walked through."

Wilson was hospitalized in 2007 for an apparent sui-cide attempt. Marley & Me, due out Dec. 25, is one of his first roles since the incident. Aniston praises Wilson as an amazing costar, saying,"He

has no temper, no ego, he's collaborative and funny and sweet." Her other costar, a yel-low lab named Clyde, was not as kind. "I walked onto the set and put my sweater and my bag down on the couch, and that dog leapt up onto the couch, grabbed my sweater and started ripping it. The set was a toy," she said.

Aniston, 39, said her films either have a great working environment or a great fin-ished product, but this one was both. "When you actually can have [the finished film] be as fantastic and fulfilling as the experience itself was, it's called a home run. A cre-ative, emotional home run. Those moments don't hap-pen that often."

Keith Urban walked into a party for his most recent No. 1 song, "You Look Good in My Shirt," clutching the hand of his wife, Nicole Kidman. "It's been eight years since I

was first here accepting an award for my first No. 1 song," he told the crowd at the BMI-hosted bash in Nashville. "I'm so happy to be here again, and to be here with Nicole. This is our award."

The country star beamed at his wife, who was casually dressed in head-to-toe black. "You do look good in my shirt," he added with a devilish wink. "And out of it! But that's a different story." Blushing and smiling, the 41-year-old Kid-man took her husband's face between her hands and sweetly kissed him on the lips. Urban's most recent hit was actually first recorded in 2002 for his Golden Road album, but it was never released as a single. At the urging of his label chief, the singer jumped at the chance to re-record the track.

"This song has had a strange journey. I love playing it live," Urban said. "It doesn't matter when it came out – a good song is a good song." These days, Urban is busy recording his next album, due to be released in March 2009. The superstar couple continues to lead a quiet life in Nashville, where she takes yoga and spin classes and they stroll about the tiny village of Leiper's Fork with daughter Sunday Rose. For Ur-ban's recent 41st birthday, they celebrated with friends at Germantown Cafe, a favorite casual bistro.

Ukrainian model Olga Kurylenko, who stars as the new Bond girl opposite Daniel Craig

in "Quantum of Solace", is scared of heights, but she says she did herself proud by overcoming her fear and doing her own stunts.

"I don't like heights and I am acrophobic. I had to do two scenes that were a little high up and that too being acrophobic. But I did them and that's one of the great things about this job (acting) and in particular working in a Bond movie. You get to do so many dif-ferent things," Olga said in an e-mail interview. Acrophobia is a pathological fear of heights. "I was so proud of myself when I did it (the stunts). It was a big thing for me and thereafter it was like 'wow, I did it!' You feel such a sense of achievement," the actress added.

Releasing Nov 7 in India, "Quantum of Solace" has already broken the record as the highest grosser on the first day in Britain where it opened Oct 31. The film is the 22nd edition of the James Bond franchise.

Directed by Marc Foster, "Quantum of Solace" stars Daniel Craig, Gemma Arterton, Judi Dench, Mathieu Amal-ric, Jeffrey Wright and Giancarlo Gian-nini, apart from Kurylenko. The stunts

Carla ‘is world’s coolest

celebrity’

Charlize Settles $20 Million Lawsuit

Boris Becker calls off his engagement to fi ancee 16 years his junior

late father Axel was his manager.Axel Meyer-Wolden managed

Becker at the height of his career in the 1990s and died in 1997. Becker pro-posed to the blonde jewellery designer on August 10th in Sardinia, presenting her with a diamond ring.

After announcing their plans to marry soon, a gushing Meyer-Wolden said: 'I didn’t know anything about it, I was totally surprised. 'I am in love and incredibly happy. Our relationship is completely serious.' The couple were seemingly inseparable and were photo-graphed together at events around the world, including the U.S., Switzerland, Germany and England.

Just last month, the couple donned native German costumes to attend Ok-toberfest in Munich. However, last week, Becker was photographed holidaying without Meyer-Wolden in Miami Beach, Florida. The tennis star married Barbara Feltus in 1993 and the couple had two sons, Noah Gabriel, 14, and Elias Bal-thasar, 8, before the marriage ended acri-moniously in 2001. Becker's divorce from Barbara reportedly cost him £10 million. He gave her their £1.8 million apartment on Florida's Fisher Island, several hun-dred thousand pounds worth of jewels and pays £4,000 a month in maintenance for his sons.

In 2000, he was forced to confess to fathering a daughter with Angela Erma-kova after having sex in a broom closet with her in a London restaurant. He has also dated German rapper Sabrina Set-lur and dancer Caroline Rocher. Becker said during an interview in 2006: 'I can’t ask every woman I fall in love with to marry me after six months. 'Rather than cause disappointments I think it's im-portant to be above-board.'

Olga proud of overcoming fear and doing her own stuntsJennifer Aniston Calls Owen Wilson ‘Brave’

Nicole Looks Good In My Shirt – And Out of It!

were risky, but the actress does not re-gret doing any of them. "It was excit-ing and challenging and at times a lit-tle frightening, but how many times do you get to be a Bond girl? It's a once in a lifetime opportunity and it's been an incredible experience," said Olga, who began her acting career with the French

film "L'Annulaire".She was then seen in

highly acclaimed 2006 movie "Paris, je t'aime" ("Paris, I love you") before making a debut in English films with "Hit-man" (2007). Commenting on her role in the spy thriller, Olga said: "Camille (her char-acter) is very strong and very determined. An independent and very feisty woman, she's almost like a female version of Bond. And, basically, she's after revenge."

Olga says working in the film taught her a lot about combat. "I learned so many things. All the stunt guys and the armourers taught me how to fight, how to shoot, how to fly and how to strip a gun. Everything was so excit-ing and experience of a life-time. At first it was exhaust-ing because we would train for hours and hours each day but then it began to get a little easier and I really enjoyed it.

I'll never forget it as this Bond movie also tended to get me away from my biggest fear (acrophobia)," she said.

Olga also featured in the recently released "Max Payne" - another action film based on the 2001 video game of the same name.

CMYK

CMYK

Middle

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LONDON, NOVEMBER 5 (AFP): Lewis Hamilton's achievement in winning the Formula One World Cham-pionship has been recogn-ised by a letter of commen-dation from Britain's Queen Elizabeth II. The 23-year-old Englishman became the youngest champion in the sport's history when, after finishing fifth in the Brazil-ian Grand Prix on Sunday, he took the title by just a point from race-winner and local hero Felipe Massa.

"To Lewis Hamilton esquire, I'm delighted that you succeeded in winning the Formula One World Championship to become the youngest-ever champi-on," the Queen wrote. "I send you my warmest congratu-lations on your remarkable and historic achievement. "Elizabeth R." Hamilton himself returned in triumph Wednesday to the headquar-ters of his McLaren team in Woking, south-west of Lon-don, to thank the huge back-up team behind his success.

More than 1,000 McLar-en employees greeted him as he drove in at the wheel of a Formula One car. "I'm shaking like a leaf here. I've never seen you all before in one place," Hamilton, who has only been a Grand Prix driver for two seasons, said.

Hamilton gets royal seal of approval

"I am standing here today to say a big thank you to all of you including the people

who work here on the night shift and weekends when I don't see all of you."

Hamilton, first spotted by McLaren boss Ron Den-nis when he was still a boy

go-kart racer, re-affirmed his commitment to the Brit-ish team. Standing behind

an array of silverware won during his brief Formula One career, he said: "We

have proved to everyone that we are the best team and we have the best car. "These tro-phies are a result of all your hard work and you should pat yourselves on the back.

"I love this team. I'm not going anywhere," Ham-ilton, the first black racer to take the drivers' title add-ed. Earlier, Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone said Hamilton deserved greater recognition for his feat of becoming world champion at such a young age, saying it was unfair to criticise the drive for being arrogant. "Hamilton is a young man doing his best and I get upset with people who say he is an arrogant bastard and all this non-sense. Lewis has achieved an awful lot," Ecclestone told Wednedsay's edition of The Times newspaper.

"I think he comes over as a bit over-confident but don't forget they said the same about (now retired seven-times champion) Mi-chael (Schumacher)." Brit-ish lawmakers also praised Hamilton's achievement with a motion in the House of Commons tabled by Keith Vaz, an MP for the governing Labour Party, lauding him as "an excellent role model and inspiration for all young people to aspire to".

However, Bob Russell of the opposition Liberal Democrats, was saddened that Hamilton had opted to live in Switzerland for tax purposes and tabled his iwn motion to add the words: "but regrets that his patrio-tism to the country which nurtured him, and made his success possible, is to live abroad as a tax exile."

2008 Formula One World champion Lewis Hamilton answers a question during a news conference at the McLaren Technology Centre at Woking, Eng-land, Wednesday November 5. McLaren's Lewis Hamilton became the youngest world champion in Formula One history after a thrilling Brazilian Grand Prix. (AP Photo)

MOKOKCHUNG, NO-VEMBER 5 (MEXN): The pre-quarter final round of the ongoing MDFA Trophy 2008 came to an end today, with the last match being played between Alter Ego and Eastern Young Club, in which the latter team won by three goals to two. Earlier, Brotherhood FC defeated Arkong SC 'B' via tie-breaker shoot out four goals to three after the score remained one each at the end of regulation time. The first quarter final match of the tournament, Arkong SC 'A' versus Youngster Club, will be played tomorrow from 1:30 PM onwards at the Imkongmeren Sports Com-plex. DEO Mokokchung, Y.Lanutemjen as the guest of honor.

MDFA moves into quarter finals

Action from the last pre-quarter final match of the MDFA Tro-phy 2008 played between Alter Ego (blue) and Eastern Young Club (white).

NAGPUR, NOVEMBER 5 (REUTERS): In-form In-dia opener Gautam Gamb-hir will miss the final test against Australia after his appeal against a one-test ban was dismissed on Tuesday by the International Crick-et Council's (ICC) appeal commissioner. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said it had objected to the ICC about appeals commissioner Albie Sachs's decision to uphold the ban imposed by match referee Chris Broad for breach of conduct in last week's third test in New Delhi.

However, the ICC said in a statement the appeal commissioner's decision is a final and binding decision. The BCCI's own statement stated: "The said order has been passed without afford-ing the player an opportuni-ty of personal hearing, legal representation and without acceding to his request for certain documents/record-ings to be given to him and also denying him an exten-sion of time".

Gambhir, who scored a double century in the first innings of the test, was pe-nalised for elbowing Shane Watson while taking a run. The Australian all rounder, who was bowling, was fined 10 percent of his match fee for his role in the incident. The test in Nagpur begins on Thursday with India leading the four-match series 1-0 af-ter two draws. In its letter to the ICC, the board said the order of the commissioner seemed pre-decided and asked for the decision to be considered void "as it con-

travenes mandatory provi-sions relating to hearing of appeals and also as being in violation of principles of natural justice."

Justice Sachs, in his ver-dict, said: "I am prepared to accept that he (Gambhir) had been the victim of pro-longed and persistent verbal abuse by members of the

Australian team, culminat-ing in a moment of anger that led to his unfortunate lapse. "(But) cricket is not a contact sport... The risk of accidental collision must be cut down. Deliberate colli-sion can never be condoned, however grave the provoca-tion," he added in a state-ment from the ICC.

Gambhir to miss final test after ban upheld

Indian batsman Gautam Gambhir drops his bats as he arrives for a session at the nets in Nagpur, India, Tuesday, Novem-ber 4. Gambhir has lost his appeal to overturn a one-match ban for elbowing Australia bowler Shane Watson during the drawn third test and will miss the fourth and last cricket test match against Australia. (AP Photo)

ROME, NOVEMBER 5 (REUTERS): Two goals by Mirko Vucinic guided AS Roma to a surprise 3-1 win over last season's runners-up Chelsea in the Champions League on Tuesday. Former Chelsea defender Christian Panucci tapped in the first from close range on 34 min-utes and Montenegro striker Vucinic struck twice at the start of the second half as Roma ended a run of five con-secutive defeats. The London-ers pulled one back through captain John Terry in the 75th before having midfielder Deco sent off for a second yel-low card five minutes later.

Chelsea stay top of Group A with seven points from

Vucinic double helps Roma stun Chelsea

four games, one point ahead of Roma and Girondins Bor-deaux. The visitors were in complete control until the unmarked Panucci strolled through a sleepy defence to convert a right-wing cross from close range. Chelsea had enjoyed most of the pos-

session, forcing good saves out of Brazilian keeper Doni from long-range efforts by Deco and Frank Lampard (twice). But the goal lifted the Serie A side's confidence and Vucinic drove the ball in from outside the box three minutes after the break to make it 2-0.