CMYK

ND-ND

13THE HINDU SATURDAY, AUGUST 30, 2014NOIDA/DELHI

NEWS/INTERNATIONAL

KATHMANDU: Seven monthsafter the first sitting of theConstitution Assembly (CA), thegovernment on Fridaynominated 17 of the 26 membersto the House, according to Dr.Minendra Rijal, Cabinetspokesperson.

The Nepali Congress namedeight of the nine lawmakers asper share calculated on thebasis of its seats in theassembly. The CPN-UML

nominated all eight and thepro-monarchy RPP (Nepal) itssole member under thenomination quota. The mainopposition, the UCPN (Maoist), isyet to name its share of fourmembers. Smaller parties in theCA-cum-Parliament get to namethe remaining four.

In the 601-member CA, 575members were elected, underdirect election and proportionalrepresentation (PR) electoralsystem. Twenty-six memberswere to be nominated fromamong distinguishedpersonalities and from theunderrepresented Janajaticommunities in the election. Damakant Jayshi

Nepal: 17 CA members nominated

Memorial to be open on 9/11 night

TRIBUTE IN LIGHT: For the first time, theSeptember 11 memorial plaza is to be open onthe night of the anniversary this year. Visitorscan view the twin beams called the Tribute inLight, shown in this picture taken in 2013. PHOTO: AP

ISLAMABAD: Pakistans power-ful military on Friday said itwas the government that askedit to play a facilitative role inresolving the current impasse,contradicting Prime MinisterNawaz Sharifs statement thatprotest leaders approached theArmy Chief to intervene.

COAS [Chief of Army Staff]was asked by the Govt to playfacilitative role for resolutionof current impasse, in yester-days meeting, at #PM House,Major General Asim Bajwatweeted as Mr. Sharif and pro-test leaders Imran Khan andTahir-ul-Qadri traded chargesover who was responsible forthe Armys intervention.

Maj. Gen. Bajwas remarkscame after Prime MinisterSharif told the National As-sembly on Friday that neitherhad I asked Army nor thearmed forces sought a role inthe present political crisis.

Mr. Sharif refuted media re-ports that it was he who re-quested the Army to come tohis rescue, saying it was Mr.Khan and Mr. Qadri who ap-proached Army Chief Raheelto become a mediator.

Responding to Mr. Sharifsstatement, an angry PakistanAwami Tehreek (PAT) chiefQadri shot back, I say this cat-egorically that the Prime Min-ister asked the Army tointervene. I am saying, on therecord, that we did not makeany request asking the Army tointervene.

I had not even spoken to theArmy chief before our meetingyesterday [Thursday], Mr. Qa-dri said, adding that Mr. Sharifmade the statement after hesaw his government was losingstrength. The fiery clericclaimed that Mr. Sharif waslying.

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf

chief Imran Khan alsoslammed the Premier for say-ing Mr. Qadri and he asked forthe Army to intervene.

I want to tell you what I toldthe Army chief. I told Gen Ra-heel that I do not trust NawazSharif at all. I told Gen Raheelevery reason as to why I willnot leave without their resig-nations, Mr. Khan said, add-ing that PTI did not ask theArmy to mediate.

I am not going to backtrackon the resignation of the PrimeMinister on any account, hesaid.

The Army had earlier askedall stakeholders in the crisis tohold meaningful talks to endthe crisis.

In its 67-year history, Pakis-tan has witnessed three coups,including one against Mr. Sha-rif in 1999 by the then Armychief General ParvezMusharraf.

The Army, which has so farbeen passive in the confronta-tion between the governmentand protesters, has a history ofcapturing power from demo-cratically elected govern-ments. PTI

Army contradicts Sharif on mediation

An Imran Khan supporter participates in an anti-government protest in Islamabad on Thursday. PHOTO: AFP

WASHINGTON: Western govern-ments appeared to be increas-ingly concerned about thepossibility of a terror attack byIslamic State (IS), the militantgroup that now controls a vaststretch of territory across Iraqand Syria, even as a laptopfound near the Idlib provincehinted at IS plans to weapon-ise the bubonic plague, andmore evidence emerged ofU.S. and U.K. citizens takingup arms to fight alongside theextremists.

Prospects for controllingthe jihadist insurrection alsoappeared dim as U.S. Presi-dent Barack Obama admittedon Thursday that, We donthave a strategy yet.

Meanwhile Foreign Policymagazine reported that a lap-top seized by moderate Syrianrebels from fleeing IS forces,said to be the property of aTunisian man fighting for themilitants, contained a 19-page

document in Arabic on how todevelop biological weaponsand how to weaponise the bu-bonic plague from infectedanimals.

Further raising fears of ter-ror attacks, Reuters reported aconversation that it had withan IS militant via telephone,in which the man indicatedthat their leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, had several surpris-es in store for the West.

[Western law enforcementagencies] think they can dis-tinguish us these days thanthat they dont know we canplay their game in intelli-gence. They infiltrated us withthose who pretend to be Mus-lims and we have also pene-trated them with those who

look like them, he reportedlysaid.

The U.K. also appeared totake cognisance of a height-ened risk of attack, with PrimeMinister David Cameron tell-ing that IS posed a greaterand deeper threat to our secu-rity than we have known be-fore, and Home Secretaryadding that Theresa May thatthe terror threat level beingraised from from substan-tial to severe meant that anattack on the U.K. is highlylikely, if not necessarilyimminent.

This week it also becameclear that IS, whose apparentbrutality towards captivessent shockwaves across theworld last week when theyposted a video showing the be-heading of U.S. journalistJames Foley, was holding sev-eral other hostages including a26-year-old female aid workerwhose name media organisa-tions have agreed to keep outof publication.

IS planning to weaponisebubonic plague?Narayan Lakshman Laptop seized from

fleeing IS forces saidto contain a guide todeveloping biologicalweapons

BRUSSELS: The North AtlanticTreaty Organization (NATO)told Russia on Friday to haltits illegal military action inUkraine after the West ac-cused Moscow of direct in-volvement in the conflict.

Fears of a wider confronta-tion have spiralled after NA-TO said Russia had senttroops to fight in Ukraine and

funnelled huge amounts ofheavy weaponry to pro-Kremlin rebels in what Kievdescribed as an invasion.

This is not an isolated ac-tion, but part of a dangerouspattern over many months todestabilise Ukraine as a sov-ereign nation, NATO chiefAnders Fogh Rasmussen saidafter an emergency meeting

of the alliance.We urge Russia to cease its

illegal military actions, stopits support to armed separa-tists, and take immediate andverifiable steps towards de-escalation of this gravecrisis.

Kiev and the West have ac-cused Russian troops of beingbehind a lightning counter-offensive that has seen the re-bels seize swathes of south-eastern territory fromgovernment forces, dramat-ically turning the tide in thefour-month conflict.

In a move certain to angerKievs former masters inMoscow, Mr. Rasmussen saidNATO was not closing thedoor to Ukraines possiblemembership of the allianceafter the government said itwas taking steps to join it.

Russian President Vladi-mir Putin has repeatedly de-nied Moscow is fuelling theconflict or having sent anytroops. On Friday, he de-manded that Kiev hold sub-stantial talks with the rebelswho took up arms against it inApril. AFP

NATO asks Russia to halt illegal action

A military attache examines a seized Russian tankdisplayed in Kiev on Friday. PHOTO: AFP

TORONTO: It began withCanada tweeting some not-so-friendly travel tips forthe Russian military: a mapshowing Russia and labell-ing Ukraine as not Rus-sia. That opening shot wasenough to launch a Twitterwar of words and maps.

Canadas NATO Twitteraccount had posted themap on Wednesday withthe explanation: Geogra-phy can be tough. Heres aguide for Russian soldiers

who keep getting lost andaccidentally enter Uk-raine.

The tweet went viral, be-ing retweeted more than25,000 times by late Thurs-day, including by U.S. U.N.Ambassador SamanthaPower.

Russia struck back bytweeting its own mapshowing Crimea as part ofits territory. Russia had an-nexed Crimea from Uk-raine in March. AP

Russia, Canada tradegeography lessons on Twitter

NEW DELHI: The Central Boardof Secondary Education(CBSE) on Friday asked all itsaffiliated schools to make ar-rangements for children towatch Prime Minister Naren-dra Modis address on Teach-ers Day. Schools have beentold to inform the board byMonday evening about thearrangements being made .

A disturbing directive

Some schools describedthe CBSE circular as dis-turbing and said the direc-tive implies it is pretty muchcompulsory to keep studentsback in school till 5 p.m. towatch the Prime Ministersspeech.

According to a form thateach school has to fill and re-turn, the CBSE expects stu-dents of all classes, includingjunior school right down toClass I, to be kept back inschool for the programme.

In remote areas where TV,edusat or Internet facilitiesmay not be available, ar-rangements have to be madefor children to listen to thespeech over radio. Also,schools have been asked toensure uninterrupted powersupply for the duration of thetwo-hour programme by ar-ranging for generators/inver-tors as back-up.

Earlier this week, StateEducation Secretaries, whowere called to the Capital bythe Union Human ResourceDevelopment Ministry to dis-cuss school education, weretold to ensure that arrange-ments are made in all govern-ment and private schools forthe live transmission of Mr.Modis interactive sessionwith children at the Ma-nekshaw Auditorium in Del-hi.

Advertisements publishedin newspapers on Thursdayinviting participation in Gu-rutsav an essay writing

competition in which stu-dents can write about theirfavourite teacher have at-tracted charges of creepingsaffronisation as there wasno mention of Teachers Dayin them though there was aphotograph of Dr. SarvepalliRadhakrishnan in whosememory the day iscelebrated.

A gimmick: Congress

Describing Gurutsav as agimmick and evidence of saf-fronisation by renamingTeachers Day, Congress spo-kesperson Shobha Oza saidthe BJPs lack of respect forteachers was evident whenthe party stood by the AkhilBharatiya Vidyarthi Parishadafter its activists manhandledand allegedly caused thedeath of a professor, Harb-hajan Singh Sabharwal, in Uj-jain in 2006. First ask theirparty workers to be more re-spectful to teachers, shesaid.

Anita Joshua

Ensure students watch PMsTeachers Day address: CBSE

GUWAHATI: The All Assam Stu-dents Union (AASU) took Rs.7.5 lakh as contribution fromthe Saradha group in 2010-11.This was told by AASU presi-dent Sankar Prasad Ray to aCBI team which searched hishouse on Thursday in connec-tion with the multi-crore Sa-radha chit fund scam. The CBIon Thursday had searched 14locations in Assam.

Responding to questions byjournalists at a press confer-ence on Friday, the AASUpresident admitted, in thepresence of its general secre-tary Tapan Kumar Gogoi andadviser Samujjal Kumar Bhat-tachariya, that the studentbody received the contribu-tion in cheques and ininstalments.

We have to seek and ac-cept contributions to run theorganisations. We will extendfull cooperation in the inves-tigation. Nobody is abovelaw, he said.

AASU admitsto acceptingdonationSushanta Talukdar

NEW DELHI: Concerned over theincreasing number of porno-graphic websites, the SupremeCourt on Friday said these siteswere hydra-headed, and thatif you block one, 10 others willpop up in other countries.

The court was hearing theCentres take on a PIL filed byadvocate Kamlesh Vashwaniseeking to block porn websitesin India.

The Centre told the Courtthat internet porn was gettingtoo unwieldy to handle and fa-tally affecting ordinary house-holds.

A complaint was filed re-cently with us about a girl inBangalore being harassed onthe Net. We got Google to de-lete the website. But the nextday it was uploaded on 10 othersites. The father committed su-icide two days ago, AdditionalSolicitor General L. Nageswara

Rao recounted to a three-judgeBench led by Chief Justice ofIndia R.M. Lodha on Friday inopen court.

Justice Rohinton Narimantermed porn websites hydra-headed, saying if you blockone, 10 others will pop up.

Mr. Rao said the governmentwas working to introduce anInternet security policy andhas taken the matter seriouslywith the Cyber Regulations Ad-visory Committee.

Porn sites hydra-headed: Supreme CourtKrishnadas Rajagopal

NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regu-latory Authority of India(TRAI) is planning to levy fi-nancial disincentives on ca-ble operators for failing toprovide proper bills and re-ceipts for payments to sub-scribers of DigitalAddressable Cable TV Sys-tems (DAS).

This failure to maintainproper accounts by Multi Sys-tem Operators (MSOs) andLocal Cable Operators (LCOs)as per the prescribed norms isnot only inconveniencingconsumers but also contrib-uting to revenue loss by way oftaxes for the government.

In proposing financial dis-incentives for MSOs andLCOs, TRAI which doubles

up as a regulatory mechanismfor the broadcast sector isborrowing a leaf from thetelecom sector.

Cable operators will befined Rs. 20 per subscriber forthe first contravention anda maximum of Rs. 50 for everysubsequent non-complianceof the Standards of Quality ofService (DAS) Regulations,2012.

Cable operators face fines over billingAnita Joshua

NEW DELHI: The World HealthOrganisation (WHO) has red-flagged the growing marketfor e-cigarettes in India, un-derlining that the use of thedevice is no less harmful thanthe regular cigarettes.

Ahead of the WHO Frame-work Convention on TobaccoControl to be held in Moscowin October, and a meeting ofSouth Asian nations in Delhiin September, India has beenurged to push for regulationsin the use of e-cigarettes. InIndia, smoking devices areeasily available on onlineshopping portals.

Vinayak Mohan Prasad, anofficial from the WHO Tobac-co Free Initiative, Switzer-land, told The Hindu thatsmart marketing and inade-quate information on the nic-otine content in e-cigaretteshad created a false impres-sion that these devices werenot as harmful as regular

cigarettes.In the absence of a regu-

lation, the use of e-cigaretteshas grown. They are easily ac-cessible to even non-smok-ers. In many countries thesee-cigarettes are available incandy flavours, giving an im-pression that they are notharmful. We have sought aregulation on their use to pro-tect public health. Thereshould be a ban on smokinge-cigarettes in public as welland a restriction on theiruse, Dr. Prasad said.

From the current $3 bil-lion, the market is expected togrow 17 times by 2023. Asthere is a growing market inIndia as well, companies likeITC, he said, have announceda foray into e-cigarette manu-facturing.

WHO cautions IndiaSmriti Kak Ramachandran Urges it to push for

regulations in theuse of e-cigarettes KOLKATA: The father of a first-

year student at the Visva-Bha-rati University, who has al-leged sexual harassment byher seniors, said on Friday thatthe varsity authorities hadasked him not to approach thepolice or talk to the media.

The father and the studentleft the university without fil-ing a complaint.

The first year student of Ka-la Bhavan of the University al-leged that three seniors, on thepretext of helping her find anaccommodation, took her toan isolated place, molested herand captured the act on a mo-bile phone. She said theythreatened to release the videoon the Internet.

Sunanda Mukherjee, chair-person of the West BengalCommission for Women, saidshe had taken suo motu cogni-sance of the matter.

Visva-Bharatistudent allegessexual harassmentSpecial Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The SupremeCourt on Friday stayed theproceedings of a judicial com-mittee set up to probe sexualharassment allegations lev-elled by a former woman ad-ditional district judge ofGwalior against a MadhyaPradesh High Court judge af-ter she raised doubts about itspropriety.

A Bench led by Justice J.S.Khehar stayed the implemen-tation of the August 8 order ofthe Madhya Pradesh HighCourt Chief Justice setting upthe judicial panel after theformer district judges coun-sel, Indira Jaising, arguedthat the very purpose of aninquiry was to safeguard thehigh institutional integrityand independence of the judi-ciary. Ms. Jaisings client hasin her petition to the Su-preme Court requested the

setting up of a new committeecomprising two Chief Justic-es from outside the MadhyaPradesh High Court, a HighCourt judge and a non-judi-cial member.

She also urged the ChiefJustice of India to complywith the house procedureadopted by a full court meet-ing of the Supreme Court onDecember 15, 1999, as per theVishaka case guidelines oncombating sexual harassmentat workplace.

Ms. Jaising invoked thehighest judiciarys commit-ment to conduct a fair inquiryif substantive cause for actionwas found in case of miscon-duct or impropriety.

The Bench has also issuednotice to the judge, blamed byhis former subordinate ofsexual harassment. The pet-itioner had alleged that as shedid not respond to his ad-vances she was transferred.

SC stays M.P. judicialpanel proceedingsAlso issues notice to HC judgeLegal Correspondent

PESHAWAR: A Pakistaniacademic freed after four yearsin Taliban captivity on Friday toldhow he taught the militantschildren maths and English andmet their feared former leaderHakimullah Mehsud.

The Pakistan Taliban abductedAjmal Khan, Vice-Chancellor ofIslamia College University,Peshawar, in September 2010.The military said securityforces safely recovered theprofessor, but gave no details ofhow he came to be freed.

Mr. Khan (63) said he got usedto life in the remote locationswhere he was held and had evenhelped educate the militantsyoungsters.

I was very worried initially

but then I adjusted to thesituation they used to makeme contact my family everyeight or nine months, he said.

During the abduction, oneday two children came to me andI started teaching them. Thenumber of such children grewand at the end I was teachingEnglish and maths to 32 of theTalibans children. AFP

Captive academic taught Taliban kids