RESIDENTIAL HOMES FOR BRITISH EX-GURKHA IN POKHARA

Kathmandu, 17 Nov.: A residential home run by the Gurkha Welfare Scheme (GWS) opens in Pokhara Wednesday to look after 26 elderly ex-Gurkha soldiers and widows whose needs are no longer being met at home, the British embassy said.
It is the first home of its kind in Nepal, having been designed and built to British standards, and providing a UK level of care. This means that each resident has their own living space, with bathroom en-suite, they also have the services of specially trained care workers. Each room has a ‘panic button’ so that the duty staff can be there within moments of any emergency.
The idea came about in 2005 when Gurkha Welfare Trust (GWT) research revealed that due to rural depopulation, accelerated by the insurgency, the elderly could not always rely on the younger generation to look after them or in some cases the old had been forced out of their village homes into austere urban accommodation where they lived with little family contact. As a result of this research, UK donors offered to put up the money for a purpose-built home for needy ex-Gurkha widows and widowers.
In 2007 the project was approved by the Trustees and work began. The home was designed by UK architects Michaelis Boyd Associates as a donation to the GWT. With support from John Sanday Associates in Nepal, building began in 2009 by SMT Construction and took just over a year to complete. The first residents arrived at the home in July 2010.
To be eligible for a place in the home, applicants must be single (widow or widower), ex-Gurkha, over 80 years old, and with no reliable family support in their village.
“At the moment we provide residential care, but as the occupants get older, they will need more nursing care, and we will provide that too,” says project officer Khem Bahadur Thapa, explaining that the GWS has a doctor and nurse on site in the home.
“I know how hard it is for older people when the young generation move away to Kathmandu or overseas,” says Khem. “Building this home for them has been a fantastic experience and a privilege to be a part of,” says the ex-Gurkha soldier who has spent the last three years working on the project. Lt Gen Sir Philip Trousdell, the chairman of the working group which directed the project, will declare the Residential Home open at 11am on 17 November 2010, when the building will be officially named after Kulbir Thapa, the first Gurkha to be awarded the Victoria Cross.
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NUMBER OF NEPALIS STUDYING IN USA STEADY


Kathmandu, 17 Nov.: The number of Nepalis studying in USA is steady, according to Open Doors 2010, the annual report on international academic mobility published by the Institute of International Education (IIE) with support from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the United States Department of State.
The number of Nepali students enrolled in U.S. institutions of higher education decreased slightly from 11,581 in 2008/09 to 11,233 in 2009/10. The small decrease comes after a period of sharp increase in the number of Nepalis studying in the U.S. Nepal maintains the 11th spot among countries contributing foreign students to U.S. higher education.

This year’s Open Doors report shows that the total number of international students at colleges and universities in the United States increased by 3% to 690,923 during the 2009/10 academic year. This represents a record high number of international students in the United States. This year’s growth was primarily driven by a 30% increase in Chinese student enrollment in the United States to a total of nearly 128,000 students, or more than 18% of the total international student population, making China the leading sending country. Students from India increased by 2% to a total of nearly 105,000. Indian students represent 15% of all international students in U.S. higher education.

The U.S. remains the preferred destination for students from Nepal who want to study abroad because of the quality and prestige associated with an American degree. Another contributing factor is greater access to comprehensive and accurate information about studying in the U.S. through the U.S. Educational Foundation – Nepal (USEF-N) in Kathmandu. USEF-N provides free seminars and advising services to Nepali students considering studying in the U.S.
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TRADE, COMMERCE, ECONOMY

NATIONAL TRADE FAIR IN POKHARA

Kathmandu, 17 Nov.: National trade fair 2010 will be organized in Pokhara by FNCCI.
The 11-day fair will kick off 25 November to push industry, agriculture, information technology and tourism products.
Pokhara Chamber of Commerce and Industry is co-organizer.
The fair will have 27 stalls and hopes to drawn 200,000 visitors.
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NEW TEAM TO RUN NBL

Kathmandu, 17 Nov.: Nepal Rashtra Bank (NRB) has restructured a team to administer Nepal Bank Ltd (NBL), the country’s first commercial bank.
Maheshwor Lal Shrestha will continue to head the management team with three deputy general managers of NBL.
The central bank recalled Bimal Raj Khanal and Krishna Das Silwal effective from Wednesday 17 November to reduce its presence in the commercial bank.
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LOGO FOR NEPALI COFFEE

Kathmandu, 17 Nov.: National Tea and Coffee Board (NTCDB) has received a logo for Nepali coffee from Department of Industry after a three-year wait.
“The Himalayan Speciality Nepal Coffee” will be launched Wednesday coinciding with
National Coffee Day.
All coffee producers can use the logo to promote their produce.
The use of the logo will confirm the produce is a certified product of Nepal.
Coffee traders can use the logo paying the board one percent of the value of their invoice.
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JOURNALIST’S FINGERS SLICED AFTER ABDUCTION

Kathmandu, 17 Nov.: A journalist bringing out a newspaper in the rural area of Kailali district has had his fingers of both the hands sliced by blade for writing news, Republica reports from Dhangadi.
Sushil Dhungana, publisher of Ghodaghodi Sandesh weekly, was abducted by five persons on motorcycles from Naya Bazar of Sadhepani while returning from Sukkhad from Sadhepani and taken to the jungle.
“You have become a big journalist, Now you will enjoy,” Dhungana quoted the men as saying before thrashing him and slicing his fingers.
He had published a news on Sunday highlighting the increasing smuggling and corruption in the district.
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NA PEACEKEEPERS ATTACKED IN HAITI
Kathmandu, 17 Nov.: The Nepali Army said today it had reinforced protection of its peacekeepers in Haiti after they were attacked by crowds angry over a cholera outbreak blamed by some on the soldiers, AFP reports out of the Nepalese capital Tuesday.

Two people were killed in the riots on Monday.

The Nepali Army, which has more than 1,000 soldiers working with the United Nations mission in Haiti, said “false rumours” that its soldiers were to blame for the cholera could have been the reason they were targeted.

“We are concerned. Our positions are being reinforced and Haitian police are helping the peacekeepers to protect themselves from attack,” army spokesman Ramindra Chhettri told AFP in Kathmandu.

The United Nations is investigating claims the cholera outbreak emanated from septic tanks at a camp near the central town of Mirebalais, where many of the Nepali soldiers are based.

But Chhettri said tests carried out on Nepali soldiers had proved they were not the source of the outbreak.

“These false rumours about the Nepali peacekeepers could be one of the reasons for the violence. The test results may not have been adequately publicised among the local people,” he said.

Less than a month after Haiti’s first cholera outbreak in half a century, the number of confirmed fatalities stands at 917 and is rising by more than 50 a day. There have been almost 15,000 infections.

Most deaths have been in central and northern Haiti, with the disease not yet widespread in the capital Port-au-Prince, which was badly damaged in a January quake that killed 250,000 people.
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THREE-WAY IDEOLOGICAL DIVIDE IN MAOIST CAMP
Kathmandu, 17 Nov.: The Maoist documents speak volumes about serious and fundamental differences between three top leaders on several issues that they hold close to their hearts. These heavily jargon-laden documents, meant to be presented during the sixth plenum kicking off in Gorkha next week, indicate Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Mohan Baidhya and Dr Baburam Bhattarai hold irreconcilable positions, Prakash Rimal reports in The Himalayan Times.

In his document Prachanda clearly states there is a lack of consensus within the party. He has admitted that there are problems related to implementation of the party’s central committee decisions because responsible leaders have failed to evolve a consensus on party’s action plan and implementation.

Since he clearly does not represent the entire party as of now he hardly enjoys the mandate to discuss a consensus with other parties without having one inside his own party.

Mohan Baidhya clearly enunciates the futility of a democratic republic as a long term goal for Nepal. He has serious disagreement over the attempts to make democratic republic as a strategy “though it was correct to take it as slogan of immediate action plan”.

It was necessary to ink deal in the process of revolution but the party must not have plunged into a compromise – dissolution of people’s governments and declaring the end to people’s war, he argues. That was wrong, according to him. Baidhya and the faction that he represents do not appear serious about a democratic consensus government.

Dr Bhattarai attacks the policies followed by the Maoists so far and warns that continuing in the same vein would be incorrect. He is opposed to stalling the constitution-drafting process.

But the party leadership reversed the set priorities during the agitation in May. The year-long agitation against the government yielded no desired results and it created more confusion and suspicion among the party cadres and people, he states.

He has stressed the need to draft a progressive constitution with well-coordinated pressure of the people from the streets, Constituent Assembly and the party’s active participation in the government. “All the three fronts are a must to write a progressive constitution,” he argues.

But the consensus chant has begun again. The parliament has put off the “futile” voting until November 19 after the three big parties agreed on Monday to explore a consensus solution.

“The UCPN-Maoist leadership remains divided on its commitment to the peace and constitution-writing process,” said NC leader Krishna Prasad Sitaula. “This has affected the peace, constitution writing and government formation processes. The Maoist leaders should reconcile, evolve a consensus among themselves and come up with one version for the stalled processes to continue.”

They lack consensus within the party on the line to follow and need to have a single clear consensus line of their own before discussing the formation of a consensus government, Sitaula added.

Maoists themselves tend to downplay the differences and resulting impacts on the whole. “Minor confusions within the Maoist party may have had some impact because the party is leading the entire process,” said Ram Karki.

The Maoists, who have refused to move towards integration and disarming the YCL, should utilise the plenum to develop a single coherent line, acceptable to all factions instead of just repeating the consensus chants, according to NC and UML leaders.
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NC, UML OPPOSE PLA INCLUSION IN PLENUM

Kathmandu, 17 Nov : The UCPN (Maoist) plan to include over 1,000 of their cantoned combatants in the upcoming plenum has sparked a political controversy, with the Nepali Congress and CPN-UML opposing the move.

The combatants´ participation, Maoists argue, will enable them to deepen their understanding of the proposed integration and rehabilitation and thus will facilitate the management of over 19,000 ex-Maoist fighters.
However, NC and the UML have protested the combatants´ participation in a political program such as the plenum, and demanded that the Maoists backtrack. They argued that the combatants´ participation will further indoctrinate them politically and strengthen their link with the party.

“Our combatants have not yet come under the Special Committee in practice,” said Maoist Vice-chairman Narayankaji Shrestha, “We hope that their participation will help our combatants understand their integration and rehabilitation in a better way.”

The Maoists have planned to let around 1,200 combatants participate in the much-awaited plenum to be held in Gorkha from November 21.

Contrary to Shrestha´s argument, the Maoists had announced the beginning in principle of the process of integration and rehabilitation of the combatants from September 17.

After a meeting of the Special Committee formed by the government to supervise, integrate and rehabilitate Maoist combatants, the Maoists had even announced discontinuation in principle of the party´s link with the combatants from that date.

The Maoist integration bureau in-charge and member on the Special Committee had said then, “The combatants have in principle come under the command and control of the Special Committee from today.”

CPN-UML and the NC, however, are together in saying that the combatants´ attendance at the plenum will complicate the proposed integration and rehabilitation, which require the combatants to sever their link with the UCPN (Maoist) as a pre-condition.

“They are in cantonments to be integrated in security agencies and to be rehabilitated in society -- which is also the spirit of the Constitution; not to further strengthen their link with the party,” Nepali Congress leader and member on the Special Committee Dr Minendra Rijal said in protest of the combatants´ participation in the plenum.

Saying that the spirit of the Interim Constitution requires the combatants to sever their link with the UCPN (Maoist) to become eligible for integration and rehabilitation, Dr Rijal further argued that the combatants´ participation will be against the spirit of the statute.

CPN-UML Chairman Jhalanath Khanal said the Maoists should not let their combatants attend the plenum.

“Participation will be problematic for those combatants who are to opt for integration,” Khanal told Republica when asked for his comment.

Both Rijal and Khanal have offered the Maoists the option of declaring that the participants will opt for voluntary exit -- which means joining politics -- before they take part in the plenum.

“It will be acceptable if the combatants to take part in the plenum announce before such participation that they are to take up political work,” said Khanal.
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FAKE CURRENCY NOTES SEIZED

Kathmandu, 17 Nov.: Police in Parbat confiscated Rs 1.6 million in fake notes from Indian and Nepali nationals on Monday, RSS reports from Parbat.
A team of police from Parbat District Police office on a tip-off seized Rs 1,646,000 from Ashok Sah, 33, of Motahari, India, and Kham Bahadur Baral, 24, of Dhading while they were going to Kushma from Baglung on a motorcycle.
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PASSPORT SEEKERS INCONVENIENCED


Kathmandu, 17 Nov.: The Machine Readable Passports (MRPs) may shortly arrive, but that won’t ease difficulties faced by passport seekers. The reason is bureaucratic tussle: two entities of the government have locked horns over the distribution of MRPs, Anil Giri reports in The Kathmandu Post.

This ‘tug of war’ between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) and Home Ministry over the distribution modality has forced people to come to Kathmandu from remote districts, meaning extra cost and wastage of time.

The Home Ministry has flatly refused to distribute passports from the District Administration Office (DAO), compelling people to come to Kathmandu to submit application forms which means another 4-6 weeks to acquire a passport even after fulfiling all criteria. According to new regulations, an aspirant must wait at least 4-6 weeks to acquire a passport and, in case of lost or emergency, will have to pay double (Rs 10,000). As of now, an aspirant can get passport within 24 hours of application.

MoFA wanted to give a role to the District Administration Office for collecting passport forms, revenue, checking document errors, verifying police reports and sending these to MoFA for passport issuance — things that DAO used to do in the past.

MoFA doesn’t know when the passport distribution will commence at the local level. Uninterrupted supply of electricity, internet facilities and trained people is needed to distribute passport at local level.

Since Nepal failed to meet its original deadline to adopt the MRP on April 1, this year, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had started to distribute passport from its own office and detached the service from DAO then.

“Why should we distribute passports? We are not postmen. DAO has other work to do like maintaining law and order,” a senior Home Ministry official said. “We have already relocated our people who used to distribute passports at DAO and we cannot afford more manpower to assist MoFA. If the govt. allocates money and human resources, we are ready to restart the passport distribution,” the official said. A MoFA official said, “The Home Ministry has refused. We are confused. The role of Postal Department and DAO is vital to ensure public service delivery.”

As the inter-ministry row escalates, MoFA is considering taking the issue to the highest political level. “Without political intervention, this issue is not going to be resolved,” a MoFA official said.
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GRIM WARNING ON RESULT OF INSECURITY SITUTION IN TERAI

Kathmandu, 17 Nov.: The worsening security situation in Tarai is starting to retard both education and development in the area.

Former Vice Chancellor of Tribhuvan University Kedar Bhakta Mathema, who just returned from a trip to the region, said that if the pattern of insecurity continues District Education Office (DEOs) may be forced to be relocated within District Administration Offices, The Kathmandu Post reports.

“There is not even a single door or window in proper condition in the DEOs in Parsa and Bara districts,” said Mathema. “The Education Inspectors are not willing to visit the schools due to insecurity.”

Dhanusha, Mahottari, Rautahat, Saptari, Siraha, Dang and Banke districts are also prone to insecurity. In the past six months, nearly 400 people have been killed and six dozens abducted across the country, while police confiscated over 200 weapons, according to a report compiled by Nepal Police Headquarters.

A major chunk of criminal activities took place in the Central and Eastern Development Regions.

Local journalists in the region said that the security personnel have failed to take appropriate measures to arrest the culprits. Chief of the Zonal Police Office, Janakpur, Nawaraj Silwal blamed it on the porous border and easy smuggling of arms.

There is also the growing trend of using firearms even in “small disputes”. People resort to weapons even in disputes for water or membership in school management committees, according to police officials.

Silwal added that this trend cannot be stopped until and unless the police is empowered with skilled personnel and sophisticated gadgets. Police also blame the situation on politicians for sheltering criminals.

There are nearly four dozen underground outfits in the area committing crimes. The culprits flee to India after committing crimes. Nepal Police cannot go to India and arrest them, Silwal added.

A report published by the Local Bodies Finance Commission under the Ministry of Local Development last month stated that five municipalities — four from the Tarai region (Rajbiraj, Malangwa, Gaur and Birgung) and 11 DDCs including Saptari, Siraha, Kapilvastu and Sarlahi failed to reach the Minimum Condition and Performance Requirement (MCPR) set by the Finance Commission under MoLD.

The fragile security

situation in the respective areas is attributed to their failure.

Analyst Chandra Kishor Jha sees lack of coordination between the Chief District Officers and Superintendents of Police as part of the problem. More importantly he said, the deployment of police personnel of Madhesi ethnicity has compounded the problem.

It is much more difficult for them to enforce law either out of safety concerns for their families or from a motive to profit, he said. There have been increasing instances of Madhesi police personnel colluding with criminals, according to

analyst Jha.
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HAITI CHOLERA BACKLASH FUELS ANTI--UN PROTESTS





Kathmandu, 17 Nov.: Anti-U.N. riots spread to several Haitian cities and towns, as protesters blaming a contingent of Nepalese peacekeepers for a deadly outbreak of cholera exchanged gunfire with U.N. soldiers. Protesters continued to barricade some roads on Tuesday, AP reports from Port-Au-Prince Tuesday.
The protests left at least two people dead. A demonstrator was shot dead by a U.N. peacekeeper during an exchange of gunfire in Quartier Morin, near Haiti’s second-largest city of Cap-Haitien, the United Nations mission said. It said it was investigating the shooting but asserted the soldier acted in self-defense.
Haiti Senate President Kelly Bastien told Radio Vision 2000 that a second demonstrator was shot and killed in Cap-Haitien itself. He did not know who shot him.
The 12,000-member force reported that at least six U.N. personnel were wounded in protests at Hinche in the central plateau, while local Radio Metropole reported that at least 12 Haitians were injured in Cap-Haitien.
The protests apparently began in Cap-Haitien early Monday and within hours had paralysed much of the northern port city. An APTN television cameraman trying to reach the area was repelled by protesters throwing rocks and bottles from a barricade.
Officials said investigations to determine if the protesters’ suspicions are correct will have to wait. The U.N.’s World Health Organisation said in Geneva on Tuesday that efforts should focus on controlling the disease, not determining where it came from.
WHO spokesman Fadela Chaib told reporters that "at some time we will do further investigation but it’s not a priority right now."
The U.N.’s spokeswoman in Geneva, Corinne Momal-Vanian, described the suspicion that Nepalese troops were to blame for the outbreak as "misinformation."
Suspicious at
Nepalese base
Suspicions quickly surrounded a Nepalese base located on the Artibonite River system, where the outbreak started. The

soldiers arrived there in October following outbreaks in their home country and about a week before Haiti’s epidemic was discovered.
The U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention found that the cholera strain now ravaging the country matched a strain specific to South Asia, but said they had not pinpointed its origin or how it arrived in Haiti.
The cholera backlash plays upon some Haitians’ long-standing resentment of the 12,000-member U.N. military mission, which has been the dominant security force in Haiti since 2004. It is also rooted both in fear of a disease previously unknown to Haiti and internationally shared suspicion that the U.N. base could have been a source of the infection that has now left nearly 1,000 dead.
Cholera had never before been documented in Haiti before it broke out about three weeks ago.
Following an Associated Press investigation, the U.N. acknowledged that there were sanitation problems at the base, but said its soldiers were not responsible for the outbreak.
Transmitted by feces, the disease can be all but prevented if people have access to safe drinking water and regularly wash their hands.
President Rene Preval addressed the nation on Sunday to dispel myths and educate people on good sanitation and hygiene.
But sanitary conditions don’t exist in much of Haiti, and more than 14,600 people have been hospitalised as the disease has spread across the countryside and to nearly all the country’s major population centers, including the capital, Port-au-Prince. Doctors Without Borders and other medical aid groups have expressed concern that the outbreak could eventually sicken hundreds of thousands of people.
In the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, health officials banned used clothing from being sold in outdoor markets along the shared border as a precautionary measure to stop the disease’s spread.
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