FOUR DEAD, 25 INJURED

Kathmandu, 4 Dec.: Four persons died and 25 were injured, many seriously, Saturday when a bus met with an accident at Parbat.
The seriously injured are undergoing treatment at a hospital in Pokhara.
Most of the passengers were traveling in a Shiba temple in Myagdi on Bala Charthidashi to commemorate the dead Saturday.
A bus ran over three pedestrians, including a couple in Dolakha Saturday.
The driver is absconding.
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U.S. Forest Fire Management Training
Kathmandu, 4 Dec.: United States Forest Service (USFS), at the request of the Nepalese Government, will provide a week long “train-the-trainers” forest fire management course in Hetauda, December 5-9, 2010, US embassy said.
A total of 25 participants from District Forest Offices, the Nepal Army and other relevant agencies will attend. This training is part of the USFS regional Eastern Himalayas Forests and Climate Change Program and was developed in consultation with Nepal’s Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation.

U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, Alyssa Ayres, will launch the training program on Sunday December 5 at 10:00 am in Hetauda.
In addition to classroom learning, the training will include field activities that will develop evaluation and situational awareness skills related to fireline tactics in a variety of simulations. Participants are expected to come out of the course with an increased understanding of fire behavior, increased capacity in fire prevention and suppression, and the identification of fire management capacity needs.

Forest fires are a growing hazard in Nepal. In recent years, more than 60 people have lost their lives to forest fires in Nepal, including the tragic death in 2009 of 13 Nepal Army soldiers while they attempted to put out a massive wildfire in western Nepal.

Ayres held bilateral discussions with Foreign Minister Sujata Koirala Friday.
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Speaker Vows action





Kathmandu, 4 Dec.: Chairman of Constituent Assembly Subash Chandra Nembang has said that there is no alternative to political consensus, The Rising Nepal reportsfrom Dhylikhel.
Speaking at an interaction organized by National Human Rights Commission and Forum of Constitutional Legal Practitioners in Dhulikhel Friday, he said that since none of the parties could garner majority in the CA election, parties should move ahead forging consensus and collaboration.
Saying that constitution drafting process was moving at a snail’s pace, he said that the country would head towards anarchy if the statue could not be drafted within the stipulated time.
Only 50 days were left to complete the peace process and six months for statute drafting, he said, adding that it was unfortunate that leaders, who should have engaged in serious discussion, were still leaving for foreign countries.
Meanwhile, according to our Sunsari Correspondent, CA Chairman Nembang believed that the new CA meeting would succeed to select the new prime minister.
Speaking at an inauguration of a religious function, Puran for Sunsari Multiple Campus, he said that foreign interference in the country was the result

of political disputes among the parties and stressed that if political parties succeeded to resolve the ongoing crisis foreign interference would end.
He said that inter-party and intra-party disputes were the big challenges to resolve the existing deadlock.
He further said that there were no alternative ways to pass the budget except by ordinance and stressed that the CA meeting was necessary to address the new national plan and to resolve the political deadlock.
He criticized Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal’s international visit and said that the Maoist act in Legislature Parliament harmed democratic system.
He said that he would take action against the lawmakers who were involved in violation of rules in the House.
He stressed that the political parties should complete the peace process within fifty days, that is, before departure of UNMIN.
CPN-UML Chief Whip Bhim Acharya charged that the political parties were not serious to start the constitution writing process and said that the nation was in a trap due to political parties’ disputes.
Meanwhile, according to our Biratnagar correspondent, CA Chairman Subash Chandra Nembang said that crisis of confidence among the parties was the main cause of ongoing political crisis.
Talking to media persons at Biratnagar Airport, he said that the constitution writing process would be finalized after ending the disputes among the big parti
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Environment needs serious response: PM





Kathmandu, 4 Dec.: Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal has said that although the United Nations has made the environment and climate change as one of the most prominent items on its agenda, the problems of environmental degradation, climate change and eco-safety issues have yet to be addressed comprehensively in tune with the degree of seriousness they deserve, RSS reports.
In his address to the Opening Ceremony of the First World Eco-Safety Assembly held in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on Friday, Prime Minister Nepal said being a mountainous developing country Nepal is aware of the wider implications of environmental degradation and climate change for the livelihoods of the poor and economically marginalized groups of people.
"Global warming and rising temperatures have posed a serious threat to the Nepali Himalayas where glaciers are retreating while the lakes formed by melting glacier waters are expanding and posing new formidable challenges to the life and livelihoods of the common people", he said.
The Prime Minister also referred to the Council of Ministers of Nepal under his leadership issuing the Sagarmatha Declaration on Climate Change after holding a Cabinet Meeting at the Mt. Everest Base Camp in Kalapatthar (5,542 m) on 4 December 2009 on the eve of the Copenhagen Climate Summit.
Nepal has since taken decisive steps to expand the coverage of protected areas from existing 20 to 25 per cent and the forest areas up to 40 per cent of the total landmass with a view to protecting the mountain ecosystem and the environment in general. "I am glad to say that in spite of increased population pressures and competing demands on land use, almost one fifth of our total land area has been allocated for national parks and conservation areas. Rare and endangered species of flora and fauna have been protected", the Prime Minister observed
Prime Minister Nepal said it was encouraging to note that the International Eco-Safety Cooperative Organization (IESCO), as an important component of the Global Ecological Safety Assembly, has been

instrumental in promoting eco-safety agenda together with capacity building efforts in countries affiliated with it.
He also emphasized that while precautionary measures including early warning systems are important, we should make all efforts to build an efficient mechanism for timely information sharing while strengthening our institutional base for disaster preparedness and rescue, relief and rehabilitation capabilities.







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