Ministry fly to Everest base

By Bhola B Rana

Kathmandu, 3 Dec: Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and 23 ministers flew to Lukla Thursday for Friday’s potentially dangerous cabinet meeting at Kalapattar to highlight the adverse impact of climate change on the Himalaya ahead of the UN Denmark climate change summit.
They will spend the night at Lukla
Kalapattar is situated at 18,000 feet next to Mount Everest.
The ministers will fly to the base of the mountain Friday morning with top officials for a symbolic 20-minute meeting which will pass a resolution amid Buddhist prayers chanted by Buddhist lamas.
The resolution will be presented at the UN summit.
Ministers with mountain gar and oxygen masks under the watchful watch of doctors will declare three natural parks will be declared.
Ailing Defence Minister Bidya Bhandari stayed back
Former US President Jimmy Carter had to be airlifted from there after developing altitude sickness during a trek in the region in the King Birendra era.
Water collects in the brain or lungs without being acclimatized to the rarefied air; the condition can be fatal.
Journalists from home and abroad have proceeded to the Khumbu region to cover the event live.
Nepal is trying to emulate Maldives threatened with a deluge.
The cabinet meeting was held at the seabed to highlight the problem the island archipelago faces with rising sea level.
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Maoist women stage sit-ins

Kathmandu, 3 Dec: Maoist women on anti-president and anti-government protests staged sit-ins at 75 district headquarters Thursday.
They also demanded action against policemen who raped a woman colleague recently in the mid-West.
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Appa Sherpa honourd

Kathmandu, 3 Dec: Appa Sherpa, who has climbed the 8848 meters high Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak for a record 19 times, was Wednesday given the prestigious “Leaders for a Living Planet” award by WWF.
Dawa Sherpa, who has also climbed Everest, was also awarded in Geneva by Jim Leape, Director General WWF International.
“Appa and Dawa represent real people from the real world. Their experiences are not based on somebody else’s data or research; they have witnessed with their own eyes the melting Himalayas. Their examples make us realize that climate change is not just a term rather it will have very real and very severe impacts on the lives of billions of people in the world,” said a citation.
The sherpas, climate for life ambassadors, are on a European tour to highlight the adverse impact of climate change on the Himalaya.
They will attend the Denmark UN climate change summit this month.
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TRADE, COMMERCE, ECONOMY

Nepal loses Rs 6 billion in Dubai investment

Kathmandu, 3 Dec: Nepali investors have lost an estimated Rs 6 billion in real estate investments in Dubai where Dubai World Co has defaulted in payment, Annapurna Post reports.
It’s estimated Nepalis have Rs 8 billion in Dubai real estate investments.
Chaudhary Group has the biggest investment.
Pawan Golyan, Sashikant Agrawal, Pawan Agrawal, group also has investments.
Comfort Housing also has investments.
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Maize production drops four percent

Kathmandu, 3 Dec: Production of maize, Nepal’s second staple diet after rice, declined four percent this current fiscal year compared to the previous year, agriculture ministry said.
Production this stood at 1.85 million metric tons—a decline by 75,000 tons.
Rice production also fell because of delayed monsoon.
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MEDIA GOOGLE

“Madhav Kumar Nepal was elevated to the premiership to split Nepal’s communists, if you believe Unified Marxist Leninist (UML) leader Bam Dev Gautam. If you trust Gautam’s critics within his own party, on the other hand, he is a Maoist in all but name.”

(Maila Baje, People’s Review, 3 Dec.)
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