NO FOREIGN INTERVENTION IF PARTIES UNITE; PM

Kathmandu, 27 Oct. Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal Tuesday charged politcal parties were pulling the country towards a crisis.
He said in dang Wednesday while talking to reporters,
Parties, he charged, were putting party interest above the country’s interest.
There’s no alternative to national understanding, he added/
He asked parties not to blame foreigners for failures and said there’ll be no foreign intervention of parties unite.
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PRACHANDA URGES STRATEGIC UNDERSTANDING BETWEEN NEPAL, INDIA, CHINA

By Bhola B Rana

Kathmandu, 27 Oct.: Maoist Chairman Prachanda Tuesday night called for ‘strategic understanding’ between Nepal, India and China while equating Nepal with the two big beighbours.
“I suggested talks on Delhi, Beijing and Kathmandu when a standing committee delegation of the Communist Party of China visits India next week,”he told reporters after returning home.
Equating Nepal with India and China, he called for a ‘strategic understanding between three powers’ and revealed China was ’agreeable’ to his proposal.
“We’ll not interfere in your internal affairs but make a government of national understanding,” ge quoted Chinese officials as saying.
Chairman Prachanda returned Tuesday night after completing a four-day China visit.
The Maoist Chief said shoes were even hurled at former US President George W.Bush and added people threw shoes at Indian Ambassador
Rakesh Sood in Solokhumbu.
“People hurled shoes at Ambassador Rakesh Sood and it shouldn’t be linked with our party. Shoes were even hurled at George W,Bush,” he said attempting to defend his party.
Sood has been on a personal campaign urging action against Maoists who hurled shoes at him in the first incident of its kind in Nepal.
Government has been hesitant.
Indian foreign ministry even summoned Nepali Ambassador Rukma Shumsher Rana to protest the incident.
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TRADE, COMMERCE, ECONOMY

ADB TO AID TWO PROJECTS





Kathmandu, 27 Oct.: Asian Development Bank (ADB) will provide a $ 80 million loan and grant assistance of US$ 80 million equivalent to Rs. 5652 million) to Nepal to implement the Secondary Towns Integrated Urban Environmental Improvement Project and Kathmandu Sustainable Urban Transport Project.
Agreements were signed Tuesday etween the Government of Nepal and the ADB.
Rameshore Prasad Khanal, Finance Secretary, and Barry J. Hitchcock, Country Director of ADB’s Nepal Resident Mission, signed deals on behalf of their respective institutions.
ADB will provide around US$ 60 million loan for the Secondary Towns Integrated Urban Environmental Improvement Project and US$ 10 million loan and US$ 10 million grants to the Kathmandu Sustainable Urban Transport Project, according to the Ministry of Finance.
Besides, OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) and Global Environment Fund (GEF) will co-finance US$ 17 million as loan and US$ 2.52 million as grant for the Secondary Towns Integrated Urban Environmental Improvement Project and Kathmandu Sustainable Urban Transport project, respectively. Separate agreements in this regard will be made later on.
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NRB AUCTIONS GOLD, SILVER






Kathmandu, 27 Oct.: Nepal Rashtra Bank (NRB) Tuesday auctioned 100 km gold and 1,000 kg silver.
Gold was auctioned at Rs. 3,223,100 per kg while silver was sold at Rs. 58,500 for per kg.
The central bank fixed the minimum price for gold at Rs. 3,146,510 per kg and Rs. 56,714 per kg for silver.
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SPORTS

NEPAL IN ICC GROUP A

Kathmandu, 27 Oct.: Nepal has been placed in Group A
of the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) associate and affiliated countries list this year.
Nepal was upgraded from Group for its cricketing activities.
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AGNI AIR PLANE CRASHED AFTER GENERATOR FAILURE

Kathmandu, 27 Oct.:: Agni Air flight AG-101 crashed on August 24 because both its generators failed., Rajesh KC reports in Repuublica.

A member of the probe committee formed to investigate the plane crash, which killed all 14 people on board, told Republica that the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) clearly shows the plane crashed after both its generators failed.

According to the probe team member, the CVR has recorded the captain of the ill-fated plane, LPB (Lucky) Shah, as saying: "Both generators had to go dead in such weather."

The member also said the Flight Data Recorder (FDR) indicates that the plane crashed 10 minutes after the generator failure.

The Dornier-228 was equipped with two standby batteries which supply 30 minutes power backup in case of generator failure. The FDR also indicates that the landing gear was lowered by the pilots immediately after the generator failure, and this could possibly have eaten up much of the backup power.

Lowering the landing gear can consume about 10 to 15 minutes of battery life. "By the time the aircraft arrived at Nopen (16 NM from Kathmandu), it might have completely exhausted its batteries, thus leading to the crash."

In case of power failure, malfunction occurs in navigational equipment including Artificial Horizons. And, the pilots get spatial disorientation leading to CFIT (Controlled Flight into Terrain). CFIT is described as an accident in which an airworthy aircraft, under pilot control, is unintentionally flown into the ground, a mountain, or water.

"If electronic instruments fail to operate while the aircraft is in the clouds, the plane can make a vertical descent within a few seconds and the pilots may not get time even to communicate with the tower," says a flight expert.

The Lukla-bound AG-101 crashed on August 24, 2010 at Shikharpur, Makawanpur, 19.5 aeronautical miles (35 kilometers) south of Kathmandu while it was diverting back to Kathmandu due to bad weather in Lukla.
The government formed five-member probe committee is likely to submit its report within a week.

The 9N-AHE plane was privately owned before it was brought to Nepal. Asked aside about frequent human errors leading to air fatalities in Nepal, a senior flight instructor and a flight safety in-charge had the same answer: "Do not fly under pressure!"
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NEPAL MOST CORRUPT IN SOUTH ASIA; TI

Kathmandu, 27 Oct.:There’s good news, and there’s the bad news. Nepal has climbed down three notches on the global corruption index but it is still leading among the other South Asian countries and countries like Somalia, Afghanistan and Myanmar. The international anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International (TI) has ranked Nepal at 146, three notches down from last year, in terms of corruption thanks to unstable politics and growing corruption, Bhadra Sharma reports in The Kathmandu Post..

The TI’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI)-2010 released on Tuesday globally said Nepal is heading downhill in terms of corruption. Last year, Nepal was placed 143rd among 180 countries in terms of corruption index securing a 2.3 score while it secured 2.2 this year. In 2008, Nepal had ranked 121st on the anti-corruption scale. Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh are named the most corrupt countries in South Asia.

In Kathmandu, anti-graft bodies say lack of people’s elected representatives at the local government level due to the political instability has contributed to the country’s plunge in the corruption index.

Reports prepared by watchdogs like the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) have shown that in the absence of elected representatives, a large amount of government budget allocated to local bodies has been misused with the involvement of a handful of local political leaders and civil servants.

Officials at the Ministry of Local Development here concede that only 75 to 80 per cent of the total development budget—Rs 22 billion—received in the last fiscal year has been spent and a large amount of the spent funds is unaccounted for.

TI-N General Secretary Shreehari Aryal said: “The constitutional breakdown and lax rule of law in Nepal are promoting corruption. The political system should be improved.”

India and China ranked 78th and 87th position with 3.3 and 3.3 score, respectively in the TI index. Bhutan was listed the least corrupt country in south Asia with a score of 5.7.

The report says rampant bribery, cartels and other corrupt practices undermine competition and contribute to massive loss of resources for development in Nepal. “The index shows that the country has been already caught in the wave of corruption,” TI-Nepal Chairman Bishnu Bahadur KC said after report release. “This rampant corruption will badly affect the uplifting of standards, development activities and the number of have-nots will grow significantly.”
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JAILBIRDS BEHIND EXTORTION RACKET
Kathmandu, 27 Oct.: Police have busted a gang that was swindling hefty sums from construction entrepreneurs from behind bars in Birgunj of Parsa district, Vhandra Acharya writes in The HImalayantimes.
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Using Nepali and Indian SIM cards, Shukra Tamang and Bidesi Saha—who are serving their terms in Parsa District Prison after conviction of manslaughter and possession of illegal weapons—were found to be issuing death threats to builders and contractors.

Their accomplices Bimal Lama and Jakir Husein used to collect money from the targets and deposit in the banks. Lama has been arrested while Husein is on the loose.

According to the police, the gang extorted millions—Rs. 10 million to 50 million per person—from many businessmen.

Following directives of the police headquarters, a special squad of police deployed from the Metropolitan Crime Division, Kathmandu arrested Lama from Birgunj yesterday, and ferried him to the capital this morning.

The two others, however, have been kept in the prison.

Police said one Indian national identified as Bablu supplied SIM cards to the jailbirds. He is at large. He is said to be a resident of neighbouring bordering town of Raxaul.

It has been learnt that Tamang was an employee of the Nepal Construction Entrepreneurs Federation before ending up in jail for murder.
KATHMANDU, Oct 27: The Ministry of Finance, which has been taking a tough stance over pledging a government guarantee for aircraft purchase by Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC), has now softened its approach and pushed for the formation of an all-powerful independent body to handle procurement of aircraft for the national flag carrier.

The new approach has been mooted after repeated efforts by the national flag carrier to add aircraft to its fleet of just two Boeing 757s have continued to land in controversy.


“We (the government) have converged on the new approach and the Council of Ministers has already instructed the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoTCA) to submit a proposal in this direction,” said Finance Minister Surendra Pandey.

Pandey told Republica that the government will announce a specific arrangement in this connection through the budget for the current fiscal year.

Under the new mechanism, the government will form an independent body that will include faces with credibility and experts in the field, empower it to identify aircraft and suppliers and negotiate the final purchase deal.

“Political figures and discredited personalities will be categorically excluded from the body,” said a source. The motive behind the understanding is to assure that the process remains free of political interests and does not plunge into controversy yet again.

Kishore Thapa, secretary at MoCTA, said that the ministry is holding discussions on the various options for developing a proposal in this connection.

Of the various options, sources said the first approach being discussed is to let the body initiate and steer the procurement process until NAC actually gets the aircraft, with the NAC board facilitating the process.

“The second option is to entrust the body to finalize the deal and turn over the remaining part of the process to the NAC board for completion,” said the source.

Under either process, the NAC board will have a crucial role to play, as it is the only authority under existing law to seal a procurement deal. The government hopes the all-powerful body will conduct the overall process transparently and anticipates that the NAC board will play its duly authorized role positively.

“There is no argument that NAC is in dire need of aircraft. But given the controversy the procurement process has been generating, we believe this mechanism will be the best way to handle the situation,” stated Pandey.

Owing to diverse interests and the lack of transparent dealings, Nepal´s efforts to bring in aircraft for NAC have always ended in controversy.

In its latest efforts, NAC last year decided to buy a wide-body Airbus A330-200 and a narrow-body A320-200 and even forwarded the lock-up money of $750,000 to the aircraft manufacturer.

However, investigations by the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament and the Ministry of Finance found that the deal flouted existing procurement laws and instructions were issued earlier this year to scrap the deal.
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NEPAL DOES NOT RETURN GESTURE


Kathmandu, 27 Oct.: Ten friendly countries, whose diplomatic ties with Nepal date back to 1960, have been busy throughout the year celebrating the golden jubilee of their establishment of diplomatic relations with Nepal which, however, has done little to reciprocate the goodwill gesture, either at home or in host countries, Anil Giri writes in The Kathmandu Post..

The year 2010 marks 50 years of establishment of diplomatic relations with Australia, Indonesia, Israel, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Netherlands, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand and Sweden.

Australian Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance, Bob McMullan, visited Nepal in April to attend the functions marking the 50th anniversary of the bilateral ties. Marking the same, Australia announced it would

provide AU $800,000 to establish an electoral resource centre at the Election Commission in Kathmandu. McMullan also announced additional Australian scholarships for Nepali students and support to establish an alumni network.

Pakistan donated ambulances, hosted essay writing and speech competitions, golf tournament, single country trade fair, cultural performances and inaugurated the Nepal-Pakistan Chamber of Commerce.

MoFA officials admitted that Nepal’s lethargy in reciprocating the gesture could sour relations.

“We are running short of budget, and this is one reason. In the past, a committee headed by the foreign minister used to be formed to mark such occasions and various programmes were held. Issues have been noticed at high levels but they have gone unheard,” the official said.

While marking the jubilee, Israel has committed to impart training to Nepalis in Israel and also hosted a talk programme on late B P Koirala in Kathmandu.

Myanmar’s foreign minister visited Nepal in the second week of February. The Netherlands had announced to upgrade its consulate office to a residential one. Marking the celebration, Indonesia opened its consulate office in Nepal this year. “We are upholding the tradition of marking such ties but not at a scale that other countries do. And, there were other constraints too,” MoFA spokesperson Durga Bhattarai said. “The president and the vice president are travelling on credit tickets due to lack of budget. In such a situation, how can we manage extra funds to organise such programmes?” said another official. Earlier, there was the general practice of issuing commemorative stamps, organising talk programmes on bilateral ties, initiating high-level visits and organising business activities in host countries or in Kathmandu.

“We could not hold even a single talk programme on Nepal’s bilateral relations with these countries,” the official said.

Neither the Nepali mission abroad nor the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) or even the Institute of Foreign Affairs hosted a single talk programme or interaction aimed at strengthening bilateral relations. “We exchanged messages at the Foreign Minister level to mark the golden jubilee. We are in the process of issuing stamps commemorating Nepal-Malaysia ties,” said a MoFA official.

Thailand has already organised an exhibition in Kathmandu displaying the progress it has made in different sectors.
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70 NEPALIS IN KABUL JAILS
Kathmandu, 27 Oct.: Seventy Nepalis are currently lodged in jails in Kabul jails, Kantipur reports.
They were to Afghanistan illegally seeking employment.
Foreign employment agencies duped lthem of hundreds of thousands of rupees.
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