SPECIAL SESSION MEETS AGAIN THURSDAY

Kathmandu, 20 Dec.: A special session that began Sunday to elect the successor of Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal was adjourned until one in the afternoon Thursday without conducting business.
Parties agreed to the adjournment for additional discussions for understanding before parties and parliament meet again Thursday.
Discussions on proposals in the legislature will be held Thursday and Friday.
Amendments to the Maoist proposals can be can be tabled Wednesday.
Parliament’s business advisory committee suggested additional discussions before the special session convenes again Thursday.
Leaders of parties said efforts will continue for understanding although there were no agreement between parties.
Maoist Vice-chairman Dr. Baburam Bhattarai said serious discussions were held for agreement and demanded new process for election off prime minister.
UML Chairman Jhalanath Khanal asked Maoists to take back resolutions while assuring the prim minister will convene a normal session.
NC Vice-president Ram Chandra Paudel, who is the sole candidate, said special session has no meaning and also called for a normal session.
MJFD of Deputy Prime Minister Bijaya Kumar Gachedhar Sunday decided to defeat the Maoist moves in the special session.
Chairman of MTLP Mahanta Thakur alsol said in Birgunj the special session had no meaning.
Government Spokesman and Communication Minister Shanker Pokhrel said in Biratnagar Sunday new government can be formed if NC withdraws candidacy of Paudel.
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MAOIST STANDING COMMITTEE MEETS

Kathmandu, 20 Dec.: A meeting of the Maoist standing committee began in the capital Monday one day after a special session of parliament to discuss the election of a prime minister to replace Madhav Kumar Nepal who is a caretaker after resigning 30 June on Maoist pressure.
The committee is discussing the special session, integration and other topics.
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NO AGREEMENT ON SCHEDULE FOR INTEGRATION

Kathmandu, 20 Dec.: A one-month schedule for the integration, resettlement and supervision of 19,000 former Maoist combatants has been prepared by the secretariat of a special committee headed by the prime minister.
The schedule was presented Sunday at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal.
The secretariat had been asked last Thursday to submit the schedule.
There was no agreement between parties on the schedule as UNMIN prepares to withdraw from Nepal after four years on 15 January 2011.
A decision on the schedule will be taken at the special committee’s next meeting.
Maoist Chairman Prachanda last week demanded a package agreement on constitution drafting and power sharing to bring the former fighters under the committee command and control.
Dr Ram Sharan Mahat of NC said fighters can be integrated only after the promulgation of a constitution.
Maoists proposed PLA Division Commander Tej Bahadur Oli its representative in the secretariat, according to Barsha Man Pun.
Maoists wrote a three-point note of dissent.
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PRACHAND ASKS STUDENT SUPPORTERS TO PREPARE FOR REVOLT

Kathmandu, 20 Dec.: Maoists Chairman Prachanda Sunday asked Maoist students be prepare for another popular revolt.
He was imparting political training to them in the capital.
He said this as the party central committee adopted his proposal for a popular uprising n a constitution isn’t drafted by 28 May 2011.
The Maoist chief earlier threatened TU campuses into military barracks for revolt.
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375 APPLICANTS FOR MRPs

Kathmandu, 20 Dec.: Altogether 375 persons applied for machine readable passpoprts (MRPs ) until eight at night Sunday.
Sunday was the last day to issue handd-written passports.
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NO AMNESTY FOR NEPALIS


Kathmandu, 20 Dec.: No amnesty has been announced for Nepalis illegally staying in Saudi Arabia.
Nepali Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Hamid Ansari said this to Katipur.
More than 80,000 such Nepalis are believed to be in Saudia Arabia.
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MAOIST MAHOTS CALL OFF AGITATION

Kathmandu, 20 Dec.: Maoist mahots call off three-day stir called by Sunday.
Management agreed to their demand for higher salary and perks.
Maoists agreed to hold off strikes for two years.
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INDIAN ARMY CHIEF ARRIVES MONDAY

Kathmandu, 20 Dec.: Indian Army Chief Gen. Vijaya Kumar Singh
arrives Monday for a three-day official visit on invitation of
Army Chief Gen. Chatraman Singh Gurung who has already visited India after assuming office more than two years ago.
Singh will hold discussions on bilateral military ties with Gurung immediately after arriving Monday.
The visiting army chief will visit the mountain training warfare center in Mustang, the Indian pension center and western division of Nepal
Army (NA) in Pokhara.
President Dr Ram Baran Yadav is conferring on him the rank of honourary general of NA.
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CONCESSIONS MOOTED BY NOC

Kathmandu, 20 Dec.: Amid calls to reduce hiked prices of POL
Products, Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) Sunday proposed to
government a Rs.10 reduction of in price of kerosene per liter for
cooking for students and disadvantaged groups.
The NOC board also proposed a Rs 10 per liter subsidy on diesel
with a maximum of Rs 160 to farmers for irrigation.
Poor farmers will receive five liters of subsidized kerosene every
Month for wicker lights.
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RELIEF FOR FARMERS IN FAR- WEST

Kathmandu, 20 Dec.: FAO of UN will provide free seeds of cereal crops,
vegetables and fertilizers for one year to farmers of three districts in
the far-West.
Farmers of Baitadi, Doti ad Darchula incurred losses after
distribution of seeds by FAO that didn’t yield produce.
European Union Facility Project Sunday approved a FAO proposal for relief.
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RECOMMENDATION FOR IMPEACHMENT

Kathmandu, 20 Dec.: A report for the impeachment of supreme court Justice Rana Bahadur Bam was registered Sunday at parliament’s secretariat.
An investigation report for impeachment was registered by the law ministry.
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SC ORDER NOT TO MOVE AHEAD AGAINST AIGP TILMALSHINHA
Kathmandu, 20 Dec.: The supreme court (SC) Sunday issued an
interim order to government not to proceed ahead with action
against Additional IGP Kalayan Kumar Timalshinha.
Timalshinha had filed a writ petition at the court saying government initiated action against him on illegal and prejudiced basis.
The court ordered stay of government action until final court verdict.
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SAARC TRADE FAIR ENDS

Kathmandu, 20 Dec.: The five-day 10th SAARC Trade Fair
concluded at Bhrikuti Mandap Sunday.
Business worth Rs 220 million was conducted.
The fair attracted more than 200,000 visitors.
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ORGAN TRANSPLANT FROM BRAIN DEAD NOT FAR AWAY IN NEPAL

ORGAN TRANSPLANT VERY NEAR IN NEPAL



Kathmandu, 20 Dec.: Organ transplant from the brain dead will be possible in Nepal by January if existing legal barriers are cleared, Gota Sapkota reports in The Rising Nepal.
Arogya Foundation, a charity organization, is all set to establish Human Leucosite Antigen (HLA) by January 2011.
Singer Ani Chhoing Dolma, chairperson of the foundation, announced to donate around Rs. 10 million for the lab some months ago. The foundation had already spent around Rs. 20 million for HLA lab.
In absence of the HLA lab, one should send the sample blood and cells India for tissue typing and cross-match level before the transplant and it takes around 15 days and Rs. 55,000 for a report, Dr. Pukar Chandra Shrestha, transplant surgeon at Bir Hospital, said.
If the lab comes into operation, tissue typing and cross-match level will be possible in 12 hours at the cost of about Rs. 25,000.
Organ transplant from the brain dead body should be carried out within 24 hours and it will be possible after the establishment of the lab, Dr. Shrestha said.
However, the existing legal provision is silent about the organ transplant from dead body. He or she should give consent for any organ transplant before dying. However, there is no such provision, Dr. Shrestha added.
The foundation asked the government to amend the legal provision. The organ transplant from brain dead body should be done in the family’s consent, the foundation demanded.
"The patients who need to transplant the kidney will be benefited by such provision."
According to existing organ donation law, only close relatives like father, mother, sister, brother and uncle can donate the organ to the patients. In many cases, the organ may not match or may not meet the cross match level of blood between donor and receiver.
The law further has prohibited buying kidney from outsiders. In such a situation, patients should go to India for kidney transplant, which is costly and risky.
By amending the legal barrier, the government can stop the flow of money from the country, Dolma said.
Singer Dolma has taken the initiative for the lab after her mother died due to kidney failure.
Even though human organ transplant from the ‘brain dead’ is normal and successful practice in the world, it is a completely new concept in Nepal.
When a person becomes "clinically dead" in a road accident or an emergency brain death, other organs of his body may be in a functioning condition.
If we implement the policy about organ donation form brain death, it will also help end the illegal trade of human organs, she said.
With the establishment of the HLA lab, transplant of heart, lever, lungs, bone marrow and face will also begin in Nepal, doctors said.
The concept of brain death emerged in the 1960s. The first country to adopt brain death as a legal definition (or indicator) of death was Finland in 1971.
In western countries, 75 per cent organ transplants are carried out from brain dead individuals.



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NEPALI OFFICERS BRIBED BY CHINA ACCORDING TO USA
Kathmandu, 20 Dec.:: United States has claimed that China had been providing monetary incentives to Nepali security officials who handed over Tibetans attempting to exit China, according to a US embassy cable released by whistleblower website WikiLeaks on Sunday, Republica reports.

The confidential memo of the US Embassy in New Delhi that quotes an unnamed source claimed “Chinese government rewards Nepali forces by providing financial incentives to officers who hand over Tibetans attempting to exit China”

The memo sent to the US Department of State on February 22 this year under the title “Delhi Diary” and classified as “confidential” has an update on Tibetan refugee flow that described a meeting of the source with “Political Officer” on February 4.

The Wikileaks, which is releasing 250,000 memos of US Embassies, has deleted the names of people involved in the conversation amidst concerns from various quarters that the person mentioned might face life threats due to the release.

The memo also adds that the number of Tibetans entering India had decreased because “Beijing has asked Kathmandu to step up patrols of Nepali border forces and make it more difficult for Tibetans to enter Nepal.”

Titled “Update on Tibetan refugee flow”, the confidential memo says that each year, an average of 2,500 to 3,500 refugees from Tibet arrive in Dharamsala in northern India, where exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama has his government-in-exile.

Almost half of them return to Tibet after receiving an audience with the Dalai Lama.

The sources said that from 1980 to November 2009, 87,096 refugees were processed by the Dharamsala reception centre for Tibetan refugees and 46,620 returned to Tibet after a short pilgrimage in India.

Most of those who stay on in India are children who take admission in schools run by Tibetan Children´s Villages since the Chinese government doesn´t allow them to receive education the Tibetan way in China-controlled Tibet.

It adds that the number of Tibetans entering India markedly decreased after March 2008 uprising with only about 650 refugees arriving at the reception centre from April 2008 to March 2009 as Nepali authorities stepped up crackdown against the agitating Tibetans and also maintained strict vigil in the northern border.

Maoist-Naxalite relationship only commercial, not ideological

The Government of India believed that “Kathmandu, including the (Tribhuvan International) airport, has become an operations hub for Pakistan´s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)-supported terrorists”, according to a 2006 secret cable produced by the US Embassy in New Delhi.

The cable adds that the relationship between Nepal´s Maoists and India´s Naxalite groups is “commercial (as Naxals purchase some weapons), not ideological”.
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FRENCH PAEDOPHILE JAILED

Kathmanddu, 20 Dec.: Justice has finally been delivered to Nepali victims of French paedophile Jean Jacques Haye, who sexually abused children in his shelter that he illegally operated in Kathmandu nearly two decades ago. The Kathmandu Post reports .

In a landmark decision, the French Criminal Court—the Assizes Court of Paris—sentenced Haye, 61, to 10 year in prison and provide compensation up to Rs. 1 million to each victim for raping and sexually abusing them. A French embassy official in Kathmandu confirmed the ruling that was made on Nov. 9 this year.

Haye had arrived in Nepal on a tourist visa and committed crimes in the guise of doing humanitarian work. He was arrested in 1999 and banished from Nepal in 2002. Later, a case was filed in a French court jointly by Enfants and Development and Planet Enfants, two French organisations in association with Voice of Children, a Nepal-based organisation. The Court sent him behind bars for two years, but he was later freed under judicial supervision. In June 2004, he fled France and returned to Nepal to again operate a shelter home under a different name and commit the same crimes. In March 2009, Haye was arrested for a second time from the Gokarna-based shelter along with his Nepali wife. He was charged and convicted of illegally staying in Nepal. By then, he already had an Interpol arrest warrant in his name. He was allowed to go free after paying a fine of Rs 700,000. When he returned to France, the authorities there reopened his case file.

Krishna Thapa, Director of Voice of Children, who has been closely working with the victims had gone to France along with six victims and rights activists in November to testify on the abuses perpetrated by Haye from 1985 to 2001 inside the Association of Children of Chhauni that he had ostensibly established for orphans and street children. The testimonies were crucial in his conviction. Welcoming the French court’s decision, child rights defenders rued Nepal’s legal system that continues to release paedophiles. Thapa said Haye was freed by a Nepali court in 2002 despite evidence to prove his guilt.

“The victims were coerced into changing their statements, and powerful people used their influence to let Haye off the hook,” said Thapa. A source said a Panchayat regime controversial minister Radheshyam Kamaro’s name had come to the fore as an active defender of Haye. Kamaro is the same man who is still running Haye’s old shelter now renamed Asahaya Bal Upakar Sangh.





Victims’ scars unlikely to heal



Suman Karki (name changed) was just a minor when he was sexually assaulted by Haye for seven years. The French court’s decision comes as a big relief to him and a salve of sorts against chronic mental trauma. Karki, 24, who is now struggling in the Capital to make both ends meet, has difficulty expressing his feelings. The respite is stained by the memories of his horrific experience. “It was a nightmare, and the verdict can never heal our trauma,” said Karki. Most of the visibly upset victims neither want to recall those sickening moments nor talk about the decision of the French court for fear of social stigma. Krishna Thapa, Director of Voice of Children, said, “All victims want to forget their past. They fear that revelation of the truth will ruin their lives as some of them are married and into different professions.”
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