Maoist decide to join the government

Shova Shrestha
Kumaripati, Lalitpur
3rd March, 2011
The UCPN (Maoist) has at last decided to join the government as the part of Jhala Nath Khanal-led government, after a month of government formation.
Leaders close to Prime Minister Khanal confirmed that he is preparing to expand the Cabinet within a couple of days. The Maoist decision follows an agreement between Khanal and Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal to put aside the row over the home ministry after Khanal assured Dahal to hand over the ministry following “substantial progress” in the integration and rehabilitation process of former Maoist combatants. At the time of going to Press, the two leaders were still working out the details of power sharing arrangements.
The Maoist SC meeting will endorse the agreement between Khanal and Dahal on Thursday.
According to Maoist Spokesperson Dina Nath Sharma said the Standing Committee (SC) meet of the party that will be held on Thursday will take a final decision on the leaders joining the government. “The issue of portfolio allocation is still undecided, so we will take a decision after talking with the prime minister.”Sharma said.

Marijuanaratri or Mahashivaratri

Deepa Rai Bangdel
Lalitpur, March 3

The day devoted to Lord Shiva called Mahashivaratri, made the youngsters celebrate Marijuanaratri. The Narcotic Drugs Acts states that anyone found using or selling cannabis shall be jailed for up to one month or fined up to Rs 2,000. But the holy site of Pashupatinath Temple was a 'lawless' region throughout Mahashivaratri.
Sadhus openly smoked cannabis with youngsters. According to The Himalayan Times, daily newspaper, Manav baba, a sadhu said he was selling a stick of cannabis for Rs 10 and had earned more than Rs 6,000 and police had told them to sell the contraband secretly. Although the government had mobilised 3,800 security and 8,000 volunteers, but they were mute.

Korean influence in youngsters

Soni Thapa
3rd March, 2011, Thursday
Kumaripati, Lalitpur
Have you watched the latest movie of Lee Min Ho, Jang geun suk or kimbum? This has been the question among the youngsters is being attracted to the Korean movies and the style of the actors.
According to Alisha maharjan a student of BSW “Korean movies has got its own attractive stories mostly which attract the teenagers and the style of the actors are perfect”. The youngsters today has been changing its style and following the Korean trend.
According to the beautician of nectars beauty parlor miss Doma lama “Most of the teenagers mostly the mongolid faces come to have a Korean haircut which matches with the Korean style “. This trend has been from last five years and is increasing rapidly.
The Korean movies have been very popular among the youngsters whereas the Nepali has not able to attract them. The Korean movie has set a trend of its different style in the teenagers.
According to a Psychologist Mrs. Monica “most of the Mongolian faces are similar with Korean faces and it match them. The youths are mostly attracted towards the new style .If this type of influence continue to takes place then that day is not so far when the coming generation forgets their own culture and tradition.

Country finally got its full-fledged budget

Rajani Maharjan
BA 1st Year
21st Nov 2010, Sunday
Kumaripati, Lalitpur

After the series of political hiccups, the country finally got its annual budget of the fiscal year 2010/11 on 19th November 21, 2010, Friday. Even though the main opposition UCPN [Maoist] against the caretaker government bringing the full- fledged budget, Finance Minister Surendra Pandey presented it on Friday at the Legislature parliament.
The Ministry of Finance [M o F] sources said the budget has been reduced by Rs. 5-6 billion to rest at Rs 338 billion. So, has been the revenue target. From the earlier Rs 222 billion, the M o F has now projected revenue at around Rs 216 billion. Finance Minister Surendra Pandey said that budget has given continuity to the priorities of earlier budge.
BUDGET SKETCH
>> Total expenditure up by 30.4% to Rs 337.9 billion
>> Recurrent expenditure up by 25.8%
>> Capital expenditure swells by whopping 45%
>> External sources to finance 26% of the budget
>> With Rs 57.83 billion, education largest absorber of budget
>> Health budget increased to Rs 23.81 billion from Rs 15.84 billion
>> Police budget up by 9.16% to Rs19.42 billion
>> Defense budget up by 2.7% to Rs 18.29 billion
>> Four wheelers to be costlier by around 20%
>> Two wheelers’ price goes sup by around 16%
>> Liquor and cigarette to be costlier
>> No change in income tax stricter
>> Reintroduction of cash subsidy to exporters
>> 5-man police post for larger factories
>> Low-interest loan for promoting livestock
>> Fund to study underground railway in Kathmandu

New Building for United Collage

Shova shrestha,BA 1st yr
30th November
A new building is being constructed with the premises of United Collage. It is being built due to lack of class room for the students. The construction was started from Kartik 11.
The building is estimated to be five storeys with one underground parking space. “We are most probably planning to make it an Engineering Block as we have already got approved letter from Tribhuvan University.” Said Rudra Chaulagaie, the supervisor of the United Collage. “The one said of the blinding of 32”DPC has been constructed and other part of it which is of 28” is still being made” he added.
Nearly 70 worker are working at the site daily, Birbal Sarkar, a guard who lives with his wife at the construction area says, the daily wage for labors are given according to their performance and experience ranging from Rs 250- Rs 550. Talking about the facilities Sarkar added, “we have to manage the food ourselves and we don’t get holiday.”
The building is estimated it be completed within 3 years. After completed immediately classes will be transferred at there.

Defiant PM leaves for Cambodia

Christina Rai Kathmandu, November 30

Simply ignoring the request from all quarters to remain the capital to solve the growing problem crisis, caretaker prime minister Madav Kumar Nepal on Tuesday left for Cambodia to attend the sixth International Conference for Asia Political Parties.
Political parties as well as speaker Subas Chandra Nembang, on Monday, requested the prime minister to cancel his trip to end the protracted deadlock by resuming the house session for the next election of a new Prime Minister, Nepal has been ignoring the call saying that consensus should first be forged among parties on unsettled issues.
The prime minister told reporters at the Tribhuvan International Airport, “my foreign visit will not obstruct the ongoing efforts to end the deadlock because there are other leaders available here to discuss on any issue. If my presence is needed I am ready to shorten my trip.”
Two other senior UML leaders have their own foreign trip. UML leader KP Sharma Oli for Cambodia and Chairman Jalanath Khanal is for South Africa to attend a meeting of labour parties. The absence of the prime minister and the other UML leaders arise a skeptic thought in people and other political parties that they are likely to delay negotiation among the parties.
During his visit, Nepal will hold meeting with his Cambodian counterpart Hun Sen and head of government from Asian countries. He will also address the first meeting of the World Eco- Safety Assembly on December 3 according to a press release. After the General Assembly meeting he will leave for Brussels to attend a meeting of least Developed Countries on Dec 4. On Dec 9 he will return Nepal.

Wikileaks to release Nepal secrets

Soni Thapa
Kathmandu, Nov 30

Among more than 2,50,000 leaked files, a portion of which was released on Sunday 2,600 documents are related to Nepal.
Although none of the document on Nepal was released on Sunday, the website will be releasing the embassy cables in the next few months. The cables are about the Maoist rebellion, Tibetan refugees, political parties and Nepal- India relations among other things.
According to the website, the secret document has 2,278 sent by the US embassy in Kathmandu to the US state department. Eighty four of those documents were labeled secret and 1,399 confidential while the remaining 795 are unclassified.

Among all the cables obtained by the Wikileaks, there are 8,320 documents on china, 1,095 on Afghanistan, 5,087 on India,4,775 on Pakistan, 3,166 on Srilanka and 2,182 on Bangladesh.
“The documents will give people around the world on unprecedented insight into US government’s foreign activities, the website said on the release of documents despite the strong words from Washington.
“The cables which date from 1966 to February 2010 contain confidential communications between 274 embassies in countries throughout the world and the state department in Washington” the website added.

Dicaprio to give $1m to save wild cats

Srijana Kunwar
Kathnmandu,Nov 26

Hollywood heartthrob Leonardo DiCaprio gives 1 million dollar to world wild conservation efforts through his fund at the tiger conservation efforts at the California Community Foundation.
DiCaprio will be attending this week summit which is going to be held in St. Peters burg in Russia where the heads of the governments and states from 13 tiger range countries including Nepal are discussing about saving tigers. The main purpose of this summit is to doubling the number of wild cats by 2022.
DiCaprio a WWF board member, recently visited Nepal and Bhutan touring tiger habitat and met community members to learn about the national park tiger. DiCaprio donation will help support to protect critical tigers forests where the needs are most urgent. The government of Nepal gives totally support to International celebrity, Leonardo DiCaprio in conserving wild tigers in Nepal.


The 13 countries where tiger still exist are Bangladesh , Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar , Laos, Nepal Russia, India Thailand and Vietnam .
WWF Nepal office informed that Nepal would receive more than 50% of the fund for tiger conservation. However the amount has not been located specification in the name of any country right now.

A man with 39 wives and 94 childrens

Deepa Rai Bangdel
Lalitpur, March 2

In India's remote Northeast, Ziona Chana, 66 year old man has 39 wives,
94 childrens and 33 grandchildrens and would not mind having more.
'' I once married 10 women in one year '' he said. They all live in a four storey building with 100 rooms and share a common kitchen. The wives take turns cooking, while his daughters do all the housework and men do outdoors works.
The total family, 167 consumes around 91 Kg of rice and more than 59 Kg of
potatoes a day. Ziona said, '' even today, I am ready to expand my family and willing
to go to any extent to marry. I have so many people to care and I consider myself a
lucky man. '' He followed Christian religious sect, called the 'Chana' , which allows
polygamy.

Price down

Deepa Rai Bangdel
Lalitpur, March 1

The decrease in cell phone prices in Nepal has caught the attention of many.
The main causes of slipping prices of cell phones is Brand competition.
People are more prone to buy a particular cell phone model when it is brand
new, but a few months, its price falls. In today's market, the price of a cell phone hardly stays constant for more than few months. Suman Gurung, salesperson at Mobile plaza in New road said '' In December 2010, Nokia E71's price was Rs 24,800 but by February 2011, its price had fall to Rs 22,400 and Samsung Corby was Rs 13,900 but now it fall at Rs 9,900.'' The low range cell phones are with fall of only Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000. When the prices fall in the international market, there are more people to bring products into Nepal as said by Eakesh Bhandari,salesperson at Sony Ericssion store in Tamrakar Plaza. He adds more that the only way to sell old models which are losing their edge is to make them cheap.
Changes in sales can more often be attributed to the age of a model. The cell phone industry is flourishing in Nepal and the customer base for mobile stores is ever expanding.Some may wait those extra months to have had their eye on and others are busy to run to the markets to grap it. All
customers can look forward to more drops.

Degrading environment of Bagmati River

Christina Rai
Kumaripati, Lalitpur
1st March, 2011

The Bagmati River at Pashupati Nath which is supposed to be pristine and holy by devotes of inside and outside of Nepal is degrading day by day.
The condition of the Bagmati River at Pashupati Nath is such that people do not dare to touch the water. The smell of it becomes horrible that whoever passes through it covers his or her nose and mouth by his or her hand .and by other things. Even though the monkeys also do not drink the water of it, that in its vicinity.
Dumping of the solid wastes along its bank, discharge of sewage into the river without treatment, encroaching of land around the river bank by squatters and illegal sand mining are the major factors leading to the pollution and degrading environment of the Bagmati River. This makes the end to the Bagmati Rivers’ sanctity and beauty.
Despite numerous organizations working towards curbing the environmental degradation of the Bagmati River at Pashupati Nath, no tangible improvement has been seen yet. The government of Nepal has stated that they will bring major changes in the conditions of Bagmati River and its environment many times but the work has not yet been seen. This arise sadness in the mind people of Nepal.

188 workers return home from Libya

Deepa Bangdael
kumaripati,lalitpur

With the government’s drive to send away Nepali migrant workers from strife-torn Libya picking up speed, more migrant workers from other Libyan cities, apart from Darnah, have started to return Nepal.

On Sunday, 84 workers were airlifted to Kathmandu from Tripoli, the capital city of Libya that has become the epicenter of the ongoing unrest in the North African country, via Istanbul of Turkey. According to Hansa Raj Wagle, vice president of Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies (NAFEA), 84 Nepali workers were first airlifted to Istanbul, along with migrant workers from other countries, and then to Kathmandu via Doha, Delhi and Bahrain. Of the total 119 workers who had reached Tripoli through Peace International Manpower Company of Kathmandu about a year ago, 35 Nepali workers are expected to return Nepal on Monday.

“As the streets in Tripoli turned into battlegrounds, we stopped our work a week ago,” Jagat Gurung, 33, a resident of Tangsing in Kaski, after landing in Kathmandu. “We had been staying inside our camps since last Monday. Our company arranged for our return flights, stating that it was not safe to work in Tripoli.”According to Jagat, though 90 workers were expected to board planes on Sunday, six had to stay back in Turkey due to problems in obtaining visas. “I hope all of my friends will return by Monday,” he said.

150 workers reach China

Of the total 600 Nepali workers stranded in Ghat, a south western city of Libya, 150 workers were airlifted to Beijing and Shanghai of China on Sunday. They had reached Libya to work in a construction project run by a Shino hydro company. “They are expected to return Nepal from China within a few days,” Wagle said.Similarly, Ramco Trading and Contracting, a Qatar-based construction company, has informed that it will take some 200 workers to Qatar. “The Qatari company has already obtained permission from our government for this purpose,” Wagle said.

According to Dhan Bahadur Oli, Deputy Chief of Protocol at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), 30 Nepali workers have left Benghazi, the second largest city of Libya, for Sallum, an Egyptian border town. “They will go to Alexandria, an Egyptian city, by bus,” Oli said. “And, they will then fly back home from there.”

According to Tirtha Aryal, the first secretary at the Nepali Embassy in Egypt, a group of about 20 Nepali workers had entered into Tunisia from Zuwarah, a port city in North West Libya. “However, they had to return to Libya,” Aryal told. “I do not exactly know why they had to return to Libya. I guess they did not obtain transit visa in Tunisia.”

ALBATROSS: Flying a new high or low

Pratima Giri
kumaripati, lalitpur

Since their inception in 1999, Albatross throughout the times have had some drastic changes to their lineup, which subsequently has had a lot of influence on their music.And with their transition from a musically heavy band of ‘Hi:Fly,’ to alternative-rockers of ‘Jo Jus Sanga Sambandhit Chha,’ the band has progressed to new heights. The new album, ‘Atti Bho,’ has had a great deal of expectation surrounding it, and in a sense was much anticipated. For those of us who still refuse to take in Albatross’s alternative sounds and swear via their first album – ‘Hi:Fly,’ it is time to abandon those notions.

The band has never looked back after ‘Jo Jus Sanga Sambandhit Chha,’ and to further their stance on the same direction is the new album. Consisting of eight tracks, the album has a dense appeal to the alternative rock-loving youths of our country that are in throngs.

The sound throughout the album has been cleanly produced, and separation of instruments is well worth mentioning. However, the constant sounding acoustic guitar on almost all the tracks wears you down.

‘Shriti ra Dristi,’ which has already become quite famous from their playing in concerts, is probably the most notable song in the album. The heavy distortion from the start of the song gives a sound alike to “Hi:Fly,” and without a doubt catches the attention of the listener. ‘Janatama appeal’ is all about the political turmoil the country has been facing for quite some time now. Though the vocals, which sounds as if from a megaphone, is not pleasing at first, you get used to it in time, and the double entendre of the lyrics are pretty interesting to listen to.

As the album progresses, you get the feeling that a monotonous routine rises in the tracks that follow. ‘Jhariko Raat,’ is a loneliness-themed track and is depressingly familiar.Though musically the song is almost neutral in a sense, the lyrics let it down, however. The all to similarity between songs about loneliness does not grab at you, like it used to in the old days.

The uncompromising and unique vocals on ‘Nischal’ is well worth complementing, as well the as the bass line. The slow start of ‘Abhiman’ is well pitched, and altogether the song is formed and complete. This is perhaps the only slow song of the album that really takes your attention.‘Kahile Kahi’ with the wah-wah pedals and heavy distortion somehow does not click. The elongated and loud vocals are not clear enough, creating an irritating effect.
Though ‘Atti Bho’ will strike a chord with lots of alternate lovers, the general effect of the whole album on a usual listener is not altogether pleasing.

London selling, breast milk ice cream

Sadichhya Shakya
lagan tole,kathmandu

Ice cream made with breast milk has proved a big hit in a London restaurant, with the first batch sold out within days of going on sale, its makers said on Friday. The ice cream, called Baby Gaga, is made with milk expressed by 15 women who replied to an advertisement posted on an online mothers´ forum. Each serving of Baby Gaga at the Icecreamists cafe in trendy Covent Garden costs £14 ($22.5, 16 euros).

One of the milk donors, Victoria Hiley, 35, said that if adults realized how tasty breast milk was then more new mothers would feel happier about breastfeeding.She expressed the milk at the cafe and it was pasteurized before lemon taste and vanilla pods were added during the churning process. Hiley, who is paid £15 for every 10 ounces of milk she donates to the company, told the BBC: "What’s the harm in using my assets for a bit of extra cash?"

The founder of Icecreamists, Matt O’Connor, said he could not understand people being squeamish about the product."If it’s good enough for our children, it’s good enough for the rest of us," he said."Some people will hear about it and go yuck -- but actually its pure organic, free-range and totally natural."A spokeswoman for Icecreamists said that despite the success of Baby Gaga there were currently no plans to market the breast milk ice cream more widely."This was launched this week and already the ice cream has sold out," she told AFP.

Maoists Option Out Of Government

Pratima Giri
kumaripati,lalitpur

Maoists have decided to stay out of the government after the crucial CPN-UML standing committee meeting refused to give them the home ministry portfolio.

The Maoists stating that Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal had failed to translate the so-called seven-point agreement said they would opt out of the government until the deal is implemented.

School embezzles scholarship amount

sadichhya shakya
lagan Tole,Kathmandu



The scholarship fund of Rs. 2, 97,000 has been embezzled in a school of Raku Village Development Committee (VDC) next to the district headquarters.

School head master Ratna Bahadur Nepali and school management committee chairperson Prem Prasad Subedi are supposedly involved in misappropriating the fund allocated for scholarship, snacks, building and furniture in Ambika primary school, Lusakot.

Though an assembly of guardians sacked both the chairperson and head master from their posts forcing them to deposit the amount, they have not yet returned the embezzlement fund even after six months, said current head master Pancha Kumar Subedi.

The authority concerned is not sensitive enough to control the growing trend of corruption in educational sector, according to the school students. Some 256 children are pursuing their study in the school

One held for bid to supply drugs in jail

Sandhya Rai
Kumaripati, Lalitpur
15th Feb, 2011
Police arrested Basudev Gurung (23) of Siddharthanagar Municipality-13, who dared to supply a samosa filled with a gram of brown sugar to his friend in police custody today.

On suspicion, police asked him to taste the samosa before handing it over to his friend. Gurung revealed that he had brought the smuggled goods from Sunauli of India.

Gurung was also arrested on September 18, 2010 while dealing in drugs, said SP Sher Bahadur Basnet. He was released on bail on January 16. In a separate incident today, police arrested Bhola Musalman of Siddharthanagar-4 with eight litres of Phensidyl, a cough syrup used as recreational narcotic. Anil Agrahari of Nautanawa Maharjung of India was also held with hashish and brown sugar today.

Ashik Khan of Butwal-4 was nabbed with 4.5 gram brown sugar today itself.

Christian communities demand Khanal’s Resignation

Hrishita Deo
Kumaripati, Lalitpur
15th Feb, 2011

Christian communities have demanded for Prime Minister Jhala Nath Khanal’s resignation as the present government did not provide the burial land for them.
C B Gahatraj, General Secretary of Christian Advising Committee for the New Constitution (CACNC) said that they would ask Prime Minister Khanal to resign if he fails to provide burial land across the country. “We are going to submit a memorandum to the Prime Minister, the government, local bodies of all 75 districts and human rights organizations to draw their attention,” he added.
Christian communities have been demanding that land for burial since the Pashupati Area Development Trust (PADT) restricted non-Hindu burials at Shleshmantak forest.

About 180 representatives of Christian communities from 63 districts gathered today in Kathmandu and formed a 125-member Graveyard Management Struggle Committee headed by Dr Sundar Thapa, president of CACNC.
However, the government is not interested in providing public land for different communities to bury bodies. “This is against international tradition and system,” said government sources. “They should buy land for their burial sites,” they said.

The Hindus bury or cremate bodies on the banks of rivers as per their tradition. If non-Hindus want to bury or cremate their bodies on river banks, they can, said government authorities.

Gahatraj said the government should provide land on charitable grounds. “We are Nepalese and the government can’t intervene in our tradition by presenting international instances,” he said. All Christian members of political parties will resign, said Gahatraj. “Neither the PM nor political parties have responded to us. We will therefore ask them to resign from the parties,” he said.

Car bomb injures eight in Thai south

Hrishita Deo
Kalimati, Kathmandu
04:15pm; 13th Feb, 2011

A car bomb exploded outside a bank in Thailand's insurgency-plagued far south, leaving eight people injured, police said.

The blast occurred at 9.30 am on Sunday in Yala, one of three provinces near the Malaysian border that have been under emergency rule since 2005.

"There was a bomb hidden in a fire extinguisher in a pick-up truck parked in front of a grocery shop near Siam City Bank," a local police officer said. "It caused a fire in a nearby shop and injured about eight people."

Shadowy Islamic insurgents have waged a violent campaign in Thailand's southernmost region since early 2004, leaving more than 4,400 people dead, including both Muslims and Buddhists, in near-daily attacks.

Violence appears to have intensified recently: a bomb attack in Yala province killed nine villagers last month and an unusually bold attack by militants a week earlier on a military base left at least four soldiers dead.

On Thursday three people, including a teacher, were shot dead and their bodies burned in neighbouring Pattani province, in one of a series of gun attacks in the region last week.

Warrant for Musharraf over Bhutto murder

Hrishita Deo
Kalimati, Kathmandu
03:11pm; 13th Feb, 2011

A Pakistani anti-terrorism court today issued an arrest warrant for former president Pervez Musharraf over the assassination of ex-prime minister Benazir Bhutto, a public prosecutor said.

Musharraf, who was president when Bhutto was killed in December 2007 in a gun and suicide bomb attack, is in self-imposed exile in London. He will not go to Pakistan for any court hearing, his spokesman said.

Musharraf is suspected to have been part of a “broad conspiracy” to have his political rival killed before elections.

“Judge Rana Nisar Ahmad has issued non-bailable warrant for Musharraf and directed him to appear before court on February 19,” special prosecutor Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali said, adding that a joint investigation report had said “Musharraf was involved in the case and was equally responsible”. The report said it was a broad conspiracy involving Musharraf, two police officials and terrorists,according to Ali.

When asked what would happen if Musharraf did not appear in court, Ali said: “We will see when the time comes.”

But Musharraf’s spokesman in London said the former president would not abide by with the warrant. “No, he won’t go for this hearing,” Fawad Chaudhry said, adding that the warrant was “totally ridiculous”. He ridiculed Pakistani accusations that Musharraf failed to provide adequate security for Bhutto. He, however said Musharraf planned to go back to Pakistan to contest elections.

In December, police arrested two senior police officers, Saud Aziz and Khurram Shahzad, for assumed disregard of duty over the assassination of Bhutto. Aziz, who was city police chief at the time of the killing; and Shahzad, another senior policeman in Rawalpindi, had been arrested for their “failure” to protect Bhutto.

In April, a UN panel accused the government of failing to provide Bhutto with adequate protection and said investigations were hampered by intelligence agencies and other officials.

At the time of Bhutto’s death, Musharraf’s government blamed the assassination on Pakistan’s Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, who denied any involvement.

Secretary General of Musharraf’s All Pakistan Muslim League party Muhammad Ali Saif accused the government of not following legal procedures. “I call it unilateral, as the arrest warrant was issued without hearing Pervez Musharraf,” Saif said. He added: “No list of questions had been sent to Musharraf, The government is trying to deflect public opinion from its own incompetency and failure by wrongly implicating Musharraf in the case.