Myanmar’s press council today said the army had admitted to shooting dead a man in its custody who activists claim was a reporter detained after covering clashes near the conflict-hit eastern border.

Aung Naing was gunned down as he tried to flee detention in Kyaikmaraw town in southeastern Mon state on October 4, the interim Myanmar Press Council (MPC) said citing a rare statement issued by the military.

He “tried to escape by fighting with a soldier and attempting to steal his weapon” said the document seen by AFP, adding that Aung Naing was suspected of being a member of a local armed group.

This was contradicted by activists and local media reports which said he was a freelance journalist covering unrest in the region, where fighting between government troops and rebels has flared in recent weeks.

The US-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said Aung Naing was thought to have worked for several local news titles but the MPC was unable to confirm his status as a reporter.

The military statement issued Thursday – a first of its kind from the army which ruled Myanmar with an iron fist for decades – added the man had been buried in Shwe Wah Chaung village, near where he died.
MPC secretary Kyaw Min Swe told AFP the burial meant it was difficult to verify the army version of events.

“This is a big question to ask the military, because they cannot show the dead body,” he said, also questioning why the group had received news of the death nearly three weeks after the shooting.

Yesterday, the CPJ said the death of Aung Naing was “reprehensible”, adding that he was the first reporter killed in the former junta-run nation since 2007.

“Civilian authorities must investigate the military’s accounting of his death, which has the initial hallmarks of a cover-up,” said Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s Southeast Asia representative, in a statement.

“Any soldier found responsible for his extrajudicial killing or mistreatment before his death must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

Reporters were regularly detained under the junta, which meted out long jail sentences to journalists while choking off information with some of the world’s most draconian censorship rules.

Reforms implemented by the current regime, including freeing most political prisoners and lifting pre-publication press scrutiny, have been lauded by the international community as the country opens up.

Theatre fans, prepare to park yourself in Juhu for two weeks starting Tuesday, November 5. That’s when the 2013 edition of the annual Prithvi Theatre Festival gets underway. Unlike previous editions, this year’s festival has no theme. Instead audiences will get to see a set of mostly new plays. Of the dozen productions that make up the roster, ten will premiere at the festival. Aside from the plays, events include StageTalk@Prithvi, a series of conversations between journalist Pragya Tiwari and theatre directors Atul Kumar, Quasar Thakore Padamsee and Sunil Shanbag; a chamber music concert by members of the Symphony Orchestra of India; and acoustic jam sessions with Vivienne Pocha, Merlin D’Souza, Shruti Bhave, Hamsika Iyer, Ranjit Barot and Taufiq Qureshi. Here’s a round-up of the plays that will feature at the fest:

Salesman Ramlal (Hindi)
The festival will open with the revival of an old play – director Feroz Abbas Khan’s Salesman Ramlal, a Hindi version of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, which was first performed in 1997. Film actor Satish Kaushik plays the titular salesman, in the drama about a family falling apart beneath the weight of paternal expectations and individual failure.
Wednesday, November 6, at 6pm and 9pm.

Umrao (Hindi)
As the title suggests, director Hidayat Sami’s play is about the Lucknowi courtesan from Mirza Muhammad Hadi Ruswa’s novel Umrao Jaan Ada. Just as the English annexe Oudh, the courtesan decides to leave the safety of her kotha to seek a new life.
Thursday, November 7, at 6pm and 9pm.

Rashomon Blues (Hindi)
An adaptation of Akira Kurosawa’s classic film Rashomon, director Bijon Mondal’s play is set in modern day Mumbai. A couple is murdered but each of the four witnesses has a different version of the events, making it difficult to ascertain the truth.
Friday, November 8, at 6pm and 9pm.

The Glass Menagerie (English)
Rajit Kapur directs Tennessee Williams’s drama about loss and longing for the past. Amanda, whose husband has left her, finds solace in happy memories of a time when she had no dearth of male admirers. She has two children: Laura, her crippled daughter who spends her days with her menagerie of glass animals, and Tom, a poet keen for a life away from the sadness that pervades his home.
Saturday, November 9, at 6pm and 9pm.

Master Madam (Gujarati)
Theatre director Manoj Shah, who’s known for his eclectic choice of plays, will present a Gujarati version of the seventh-century Sanskrit farce Bhagavadajjukam, in which a monk and a courtesan swap souls.
Sunday, November 10, at 6pm and 9pm.

The Tenth Head (English)
The Tenth Head, by Pondicherry-based theatre group Adishakti, hinges on the character of Ravana, who is good and evil in equal measure. In the play, nine of Ravana’s heads live peaceably among each other sharing a view of the world, but his tenth head is something of a rebel.
Tuesday, November 12, at 6pm and 9pm.

Hanumana Ramayana and Nidravathwam (English and Malayalam)
Adishakti will also perform a duo of plays Hanumana Ramayana and Nidravathwam. While the former is about the monkey god’s role in the Ramayana, the latter is a conversation between Kumbakarna and Lakshman about their extraordinary sleep cycles.
Wednesday, November 13, at 6pm and 9pm.

Ringan (Marathi)
The University of Pune’s Lalit Kala Kendra will stage a Marathi version of Bertolt Brecht’s classic play The Caucasian Chalk Circle, in which two farming collectives in the Soviet Union fight over who gets to manage a piece of land that the retreating Nazis have abandoned.
Thursday, November 14, at 6pm and 9pm.

Atmakatha (Hindi)
Kolkata-based theatre group Padatik will perform Mahesh Elkunchwar’s Atmakatha starring Kulbhushan Kharbanda, who plays a famous writer. Interrogated by a scribe helping him write his autobiography, the writer makes some unflattering revelations about himself.
Friday, November 15, at 6pm and 9pm.

Dastangoi (Urdu)
If you’ve somehow managed to miss this superb performance directed by Delhi’s Mahmood Farooqui that has been to Mumbai several times over the years, then make sure you catch it this time. The cast will tell three stories, two of which are from the Urdu epic Tilism-e-Hoshruba in which Amar Aiyyar rescues his friend Amir Hamza’s grandson from the clutches of Afrasiyab, the evil ruler of Hoshruba. The third story is of the tragedy of Partition told in the narrative style of dastangoi.
Saturday, November 16, at 6pm and 9pm.

Carnival
Spend the afternoon and evening at Prithvi Theatre watching three musical carnivals, which have been directed by Sunil Shanbag (3pm), Nadira Zaheer Babbar (6pm) and the group Prithviwallahs (9pm).
Sunday, November 17.

Dear Liar (English)
The festival closes with Motley’s long-running production starring Naseeruddin Shah and Ratna Pathak Shah. Shah plays George Bernard Shaw and Pathak Shah the writer’s muse, early 20th century actress Mrs. Patrick Campbell. The pair exchange a series of witty, poignant letters that reveal a great deal about the playwright and his time.
Sunday, November 18, at 8pm.

Mizoram Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla today said he was against ‘racism’ in any form.

Addressing a meeting of the Former Legislators Association of Mizoram (FLAM) on its 20th anniversary, Thanhawla said sometimes he wondered whether the people from north-east were being “accepted” as Indians or not.

The chief minister had earlier expressed opinion that the Centre should legislate an anti-racism law to prevent recurrence of recent incidents of attacks against the north eastern people in Bangalore and Delhi.

He said that border dispute between Mizoram and neighbouring Assam was a vexed problem.

He said that the state government continued to urge the Centre to constitute Boundary Commission to find amicable solution to the border disputes in the region.

JAMMU: Army has initiated the process to procure the latest jammer system to thwart attacks by radio and cell phone controlled improvised explosive device on it convoys and personnel in Jammu and Kashmir.

A Request for Proposal (RFP) was issued recently by the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Northern Command, for procurement of 22 ‘Sakriya’ Radio and Cell phone Jammer Counter IED systems for the army units deployed in the state.

The last date and time for depositing the bids is November 7 at 1400 hours,” said Col B S Bisht of Electric and Mechanical Engineers (EMA) at Northern Command Headquarters.

These counter IED jammers will be put to use for service deployment and operational usage for quick reaction teams, VIP protection vehicles, convoy escorts, movement of troops and counter insurgency operations, according to RFP.
The procurement of jammers has become important in view of increasing threat to security personnel who are being targeted by IEDs, detonated by cell phones and radio signals, officials said.

The “Sakriya” jammers are based on Advanced Digital Signal Processing (ADSP) technology with frequency jamming of GSM, CDMA, DCS and 3G bands of cell phones besides, frequency modulation (FM) and pre-initiator of 136 MHz to 174 MHz frequency.

The jammers would have a weight of 80 kg along with its batteries, they said.

Diwali parties have already begun in Bollywood. Shilpa Shetty recented hosted a bash at her residence with her husband and invited her industry friends along. There was much fanfare and cheer at the party. But what struck us as shockingly ugly was her attire. Shilpa was surely having a bad fashion day.

To dazzle like the festival of lights, Shilpa chose eye-soar attire. She donned a block colour kurta and paired it with a skirt and pants. Now the orange of her kurta was too shocking for the occasion. She definitely shocked a few of her guests. Plus, the skirt hugged her fab figure in an unflaterring.

As for accessories, Shilpa went for two beaded necklaces in red and white which only made her look gaudy. Well, guess Shilpa didn’t anticipate such a mismatch with her outfit.

Grishma Teli, vice-president, research and development, Ecotrail, said only extracts from vegetables and fruits are used in the cosmetics products manufactured at the company’s unit in Sanand. “The source of every ingredient is researched and it is ensured that products are 100% free of non-halal ingredients such as alcohol, chemicals like sulfate, paraben and mercury and animal-derived inputs,” she said.

India is home to the world’s second largest Muslim population but the community is still highly untapped as a consumer market for cosmetics products. Mauli Teli said that India’s personal care market is growing at 15-17% every year. “Ecotrail is currently focusing only on meeting the domestic demand,” she said.

2014 is witnessing unprecedented sales of various consumer good products all over the country. And the good news is that both ecommerce and brick-and-mortar stores are witnessing excellent sales volume.

The hottest products in demand this year are: Gold; Smartphones, LED TVs and Two Wheelers.

An overview of the biggest selling consumer products this Diwali:

– Managing Director of Fab India, William Bissell said that their retail chain witnessed 31% more sales this year Diwali, compared to last year. Ethnic garments and furnishing, both are in huge demand.

– Vineet Jain, Vice President for Big Bazaar said that the last weekend was statistically the best ever in terms of Diwali sales in NCR region. People lapped up exciting offers from FMCGs and the rush was phenomenal, even with their own standards.

– Ajit Joshi, CEO of Infiniti Retail (TATA Group) said that despite sensational offers from ecommerce portals, their stores witnessed huge volume of sales of electronics products such as LEDs and Smartphones. He contributed to this huge sale to companies such as LG, Sony and Samsung who have come out against the practice of offering products at lower than MRP cost.

– Besides smartphones, large applications such as frost-free refrigerators and entertainment products like televisions and home theatres also witnessed excellent sales in Infiniti Retail.

– Sunil Nayyar, head of sales for Sony India, said that demand for flat-screen large televisions of 42-56 inches contributed 50-55% of overall sales of Sony India; and most of them were bought from offline retail. 40-50% more sales were witnessed by Sony India this year, compared to last year. He shared that on a normal day, around 400-500 LEDs are sold in a day in Delhi-NCR region, but on Dhanteras occasion, the number zoomed ahead to 3000-3500 units. He is expecting this record sale trend to continue till New Year.

– Sanjeev Agarwal, VP (sales) at LG Electronics India said that their company witnessed unprecedented sales of washing machines, LEDs and refrigerators, especially in the markets of Delhi, Rajasthan and Bihar. He expressed his happiness in the fact that several of their dealers in remote towns in these states have already declared that their entire stock of the year has finished as of now. In Lucknow, their dealers hired more than 300 vehicles to deliver electronics products all over the city.

– Manish Sharma, MD of Panasonic’s India and South Asia operations has expressed his excitement over the tremendous buzz around electronics goods in general. He has stated that a stable government and clear economic policies is the result of this euphoric ambiance.

– Shital Mehta, CEO at Pantaloons Fashion said that sales increased 10% this Diwali, compared to last year. And on weekend, the sale increased more than 30%.

– Gold has made a grand comeback this year, as in 2013, Government had increased import duty by 15% to stop import of Gold as it was causing trouble for the foreign reserves. But as no such increase was announced this year, buyers are back in the market.

– Rahul Gupta, CEO of popular PP Jewellers in New Delhi said that they are expecting 20% more sale of Gold ornaments this year, compared to last year. Gold was trading at Rs 27,000 for 10 grams in Delhi during Dhanteras yesterday.

– N. Anantha Padmanabhan of NAC Jewellers in Chennai said that they are expecting 10% more footfall and sale this year as market sentiments are at all time high.

– Hero MotoCorp, which is India’s largest two-wheeler maker said that they witnessed record sale of 1.5 lakh units on Dhanteras (yesterday), as compared to 15-20k units on an average day.

– Rakesh Srivastava, senior VP at Hyundai India said that they have witnessed 8100 units of sale on Dhanteras, whereas on a normal day, around 1000 units are sold. Overall, this Diwali, they saw a record rise of 19% in sales of their cars.

– Maruti refused to share the exact numbers, but have confirmed that sales were pretty strong this year, compared to last year’s Diwali.