No more talks with remaining terai goups: PM Koirala

By Bhola B Rana

Kathmandu, 9 March: Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala Sunday rejected talks with remaining armed groups in the terai losing doors for talks with them.
The groups have continued armed anti-government and anti-election campaign even after the India-brokered agreement between the government and a three-party terai front paving the way for the 10 April constituent assembly elections.
Groups continuing their anti-government rebellion are fighting for independence along the plains bordering India.
"Their demands have been met. They [rebels] shouldn’t waste time. I don’t want to spoil the atmosphere that has been created by an agreement They have to come within the ambit of the agreement already reached," Koirala told reporters in Biratnagar.
Koirala has been criticized for signing what has been called a ‘vague’ agreement with the rebel groups in the terai who demanded provincial rule and self-determination for the south.
Critics also said the agreement to satisfy Koirala’s personal ego for elections without an atmosphere for it will ultimately lead to the dismemberment of a nation founded by King Prithvi Narayan Shah 238 years ago.
Nnnn

Final list of candidates for 10 April assembly elections

By Bhola B Rana

Kathmandu, 9 March: Altogether 310 candidates who had filed nominations nation-wide for the 10 April constituent assembly elections withdrew their nominations until last reports received at the Election Commission Sunday evening.
The final list of candidates still in the race will be available only Monday.
Altogether 2,740 candidates from 55 parties and independents have filed nominations for 240 seats in direct elections for the CA in 75 districts.
Twenty-five candidates withdrew nominations from 10 constituencies in the capital; 15 Maoist dummy candidates from Kathmandu-10 from where Chairman Prachanda is contesting.
Maoists had put up the candidates for limited facilities allowed by the Election Commission for electioneering; the contestants would, in fact, be campaigning for Prachanda and not for themselves in an election fraud.
Election Commission Sunday also distributed election symbols to candidates to enable illiterate voters to identify candidates.
Candidates still haven’t gone deep into the countryside in the terai amid threats of attacks by anti-government rebels, reporters for FM radio broadcasts said Sunday.
Minister of State for Home Ram Kumar Chaudhary was misusing government facilities for campaigning under heavy security in government vehicles in his home district Saptari, reports said.
Most voters didn’t know what was constituent assembly elections as they thought they are voting for ministers for members of parliament as in the past with election only 32 days away.
There was no effort at voter education, a radio report said.
CPN-UML Sunday published its election manifesto; the party opted for a prime ministerial system with a ceremonial president to be indirectly elected.
Nnnn

First group of Bhutanese refugees leaving for USA, New Zealand

By Bhola B Rana

Kathmandu, 9 March: The first group of 60 Bhutanese refugees living for more than 16 years in UNHCR-administered refugee camps in east Nepal is flying for USA and New Zealand Monday.
The children were born in the camps away from their homes from where their parents were expelled by the regime of King Jigme Singhe Wanguchuk in a deliberate ethnic cleansing policy of Hindus of Nepalese ethnicity from the Buddhist kingdom.
Nepal government is issuing travel documents to the refugees to leave the country; the documents will have to be left behind with Nepali immigration officials at Tribhuvan International Airport as the refugees leave Nepal.
“What happens if the refugees who want to return to the camp in Nepal under special circumstances or in the event that they find it hard to adjust to a new place?” Hidhyapati Mishra asked in an article entitled Travel Documents for the refugees.
On well-wisher cautioned refugees are going into a new world and in the USA they will be sent back with their first crime as an immigrant.
Plans are afoot to re-settle 60,000 refugees in the USA as Maoists criticize Washington for turning a blind eye to the forcible expulsion of the refugees from Bhutan.
Nnnn




Govt. investigates robbery at Norwegian ambassadors house

Kathmandu, 9 March: An embarrassed government Sunday formed a police probe team to investigate a robbery at the home of Norwegian Ambassador Tore Torang Friday night.
The home ministry expressed regret within creasing incidents of crime in and around the capital city indicating a worsening law and order situation in the entire country.
The ambassador was unharmed.
A group of three dozen people broke into the house and decamped with a laptop computer, Rs 40,000 in cash and clothes,
Nnnn

Nepal starts sending semi-skilled workers to Japan

Kathmandu, 9 March: The government has formally expressed its readiness to send Nepali workers to Japam, The Kathmandu Post reports.
According to Shyam Prasad Mainali, secretary of the Ministry of Labour, the government recently sent a letter to the Japanese government and the Japan International Training Cooperation Organization (JITCO) stating Nepal’s interest in exporting labour to the largest economy of Asia..
In the first week of January 2008, the government started diplomatic efforts to send Nepali job-seekers with varying qualifications—ranging from highly skilled to semi-skilled to Japan.
nnnn