Rebel leader dead while undergoing treatment; other details

By Bhola B Rana

Kathmandu, 22 Nov: A terai rebel leader died Saturday morning while undergoing treatment for bullet wounds at a hospital in Lahan while fleeing.
Police shot Ram Naraian Yadav while transporting him.
Violence continues in the terai unabated.
One person on Madeshi descent received serious head injuries overnight when he was assaulted at his home in Janakpur.
A boy died and two others were injured Friday in Gaur, Rautahat, when a bomb exploded at a crowded marketplace during a festival.
Meanwhile, Local Development Minister Ram Chandra Jha said in Sarlahi Friday official government, rebel dialogue will start in the second week of Magshir [begins 23 Nov.]., according to Annapurna Post.
He said talks will be initiated with 27 rebel groups in the south.
Government dialogue team coordinator and Peace Minister Janardhan Sharma Prabhakar said this week government has held informal talks with 15 groups to prepare an environment for official talks.
Jha said talks haven’t been held with one of the most powerful Jai Krishna Goit group of janatanrik terai MUktiMorcha.
“The peace process won’t be affected without talks with the Goit group,” Jha said.
Talks will be conditional.
“Talks won’t be conducted on the issue of the country’s and society’s division,” Jha said and rebels must accept a democratic republic.
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PM Prachanda visiting China

Kathmandu, 22 Nov: Prime Minister Pushpa Kamla Dahal Prachanda is visiting China for which homework has been started by the Nepali embassy in Beijing, Nepal Samacharpatra reports.
China is offering Nepal a $ 100 million loan through the Export Import Bank to implement a hydropower project and an agreement will be signed during the visit, the newspaper said.
Foreign Minister Upendra Yadav and Foreign Secretary Gyan Chandra Acharya are visiting China separately.
Prachanda visited Beijing in September soon after his installation as prime minister to attend the closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.
After some quarters criticized Prachanda for visiting Beijing without first going on a ‘pilgrimage’ to India, the prime minister said his Beijing visit was not ‘political’ and argued he only attended the closing ceremony of the Olympics.
But Prachanda held political discussions with top Chinese leadership, including the president and prime minister during, his first China visit.
Apologetically, Prachanda said his ‘first ‘political visit’ would be to India.
Prachanda so far has visited New Delhi twice, Beijing and New York once.
Dahal attended the second summit of BIMSTEC during his second visit to New Delhi while Prachanda attended the annual general assembly session in New York.
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MEDIA GOOGLE

“If Prachanda loses, the people’s war will be lost; if Badia wins, democracy will be derailed.”

(Headline in Janasatta on differences in CPN (Maoist), 22 Nov.)