PM’S CAMBODIA VISIT CACELLED

Kathmandu, 25 Feb.: The prime minister’s foreign first foreign visit has been affected with the delay to expand his government.
Jhalanath Khanal won’t be going to Cambodia to attend a 1 March peace meeting sponsored by the Cambodian government and International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP), his foreign relations Advisor Milan Tuladhar said.
Khanal hasn’t been able to expand his four-member government of UML nominees after election 3 February secured by a secret 7-point agreement between the chairmen of UML and UCPN(Maoist).
The agreement has been challenged by a section on the UML and 14 other parties, including the NC.
Top UCPN (Maoist) and NC leaders were also invited to the Cambodia conference.
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MAOIST STANDING COMMTTEE MEETS FRIDAY

Kathmandu, 25 Feb.: Maoist standing committee which couldn’t meet Thursday as scheduled is meeting Friday.
The meeting is discussing UML amendment to a secret 7-point agreement between Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal and Chairman Prachanda propelling Khanal to Singha Durbar 3 February with Maoist support.
Maoists have opposed the amendment and asked Khanal’s party to publicly spell out the contents of what has been called ‘ambiguous’ change.
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PRESIDENT FLIES FOR KUWAIT

Kathmandu, 25 Feb.: President DR. Ram Baran Yadav flew for Kuwait by a special aircraft of Kuwait government Friday morning for a three-day visit.
Prime Minister Jhalanatah Khanal gave him a ceremonial sendoff at the airport.
Khanal held discussions with the president Thursday before departure.
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BRITISH QUEEN VISITS GURKHA UNIT IN UK

Kathmandu, 25 Feb.: Britain’s Queen Elizabeth visited Invicta Park Barracks in Maidstone, England, Thursday, AP reports from London.
During the visit, the queen inspected the 36 Engineer Regiment and the Queen’s Gurkha Engineers as well as meeting regimental families and commissioned three Gurkha late entry officers.
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CHARLES SHOBRAJ SEEKS 7M EURO COMPENSATION

Kathmandu, 25 Feb.: French national Charles Shobraj who has been serving a 20-year jail term in Kathmandu for murdering an American tourist in 1975,has sought a compensation of seven million euros from Nepal for his ‘unlawful imprisonment and violation of rights’, Republica reports.
Shobraj’s lawyer Isabelle Coutant-Peyre wrote to the President and the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on Tuesday requesting that the jail term be dismissed and he be paid compensation for the unfair trial.
A source at the PMO confirmed receipt of the letter, but said the office has taken the letter very lightly, as it is only the judiciary that can review its own decision.
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AFGHAN POLICE TEAM IN TOWN

Kathmandu, 25 Feb.: A tam of senior Afghan police officials led by Gen. Abdul Rahim Shuja, head of legal department under interior ministry, is in the town.
The team held talks with IGP Ramesh Chand Thakuri Thursday and visited the central police museum and Amar Prahari Smarak.
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REVENUE COLLECTION UP 14.2 PERCENT

Kathmandu, 25 Feb.: Revenue collection for the current fiscal year until mid-February reached Rs.107.67 billion—up 14.2 percent compared to the same period the previous year.
Rs. 20.66 billion was collected as customs duty, Rs.34.35 billion in VAT, Rs 15.11 billion excise duty, Rs. 21.35 billion in income tax, Rs.1.82 billion as registration fee and Rs. 1.88 billion vehicle tax.
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NEPAL, INDIA TRADE TALKS IN NEW DELHI

Kathmandu, 25 Feb.: Nepal, India trade talks will beheld in New Delhi 28 February to 1 March.
Officials of the two countries will discuss trade, tariff, transit issues and review implementation of a 2009 trade treaty.
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KRISHNA PRASAD BHATTARAI STILLIN ICU

Kathmandu, 25 Feb.: Former Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, 87,is still undergoing treatment at ICU in Norvic Hospital where he was admitted 10 days ago for treatment of chronic bronchitis, conjunctive heart failure and chronic renal failure.
Dr. Shyam Bahadur Pandey said Bhattarai will be hospitalized for several more days before release.
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MEDIA GOOGLE

‘Arrogance, ego, and a hunger for power are obvious excuses. I believe that was the motivation for the late GP Koirala, who would dive in a mud muddle for a compliment the way a beggar would dive for a dropped Rs 5000 mote.”

(Lucille Bolduc, reporter, 25 Feb.)
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NEPALIS UNDER STRICT WATCH IN AUSTRALIA

Kathmandu, 25 Feb.: Students from Nepal, South Asia and Africa are under watch in Australia, Rishi Acharya reports from Sydney in Nagarik.
The students with student visas are being watched at he airport after reports that were arriving with fake passports and entry permits.
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NEPALIS STRANDED ON EGYPT BORDER
Kathmandu, 25 Feb.: The Nepali workers, who were evacuated from Libya, have reached Sallum, an Egyptian border city with eastern Libya, but are stranded there after their employer’s agent, who had promised their safe journey to Egyptian capital Cairo and from there to Nepal, fled the scene, Lekhnath Pandey reports in the Himalayan Times.

At least 562 Nepalis employed by South Korea’s A-One Construction Company were

rescued and transported to Sallum from Libya on Wednesday in eight trucks.

But, the already suffering Nepalis faced a setback when their employer’s agent

Me Yo, a South Korean national, left Sallum.

“Earlier, the (South) Korean company had promised to bear the entire cost of taking the migrant workers to Cairo, which is 800 km east of Sallum. The company had also promised airfare to Nepal from Cairo,” Nepali Ambassador to Egypt Shyam Lal Tabdar told The Himalayan Times over phone from Cairo. “But all of a sudden, the company’s agent ran away. We have asked the government to assist

us to rescue Nepali workers at

the earliest.”

The government, in a bid to carry out a prompt rescue operation, today formed an inter-ministerial rescue cell comprising officials from foreign, home, finance and labour ministries.

As per a decision taken by the rescue cell today, the Ministry of Labour and Transport Management will bear the travelling, food and lodging cost of the stranded workers until they reach Cairo. MoLTM has also decided to seek help from Nepal Foreign Employment Association to bring the workers from Cairo to Nepal.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which is co-ordinating the rescue bid, in a statement, said it had directed its embassy in Cairo to co-ordinate with the United Nations, the Egyptian government and aid agencies to rescue Nepali workers from Libya.

Tirtha Raj Aryal, first secretary at the Nepali Embassy in Cairo, has already reached Sallum to make visa arrangements for the stranded Nepalis’ safe entry into Egypt. Egypt has agreed to provide free transit visa to already stranded and other Nepali workers who might be coming from Libya in coming days.

The Nepali Embassy in Egypt, however, doesn’t have exact figure of Nepalis working in Libya. However, according to MoLTM, up to 3,024 Nepalis were working Libya. Among them, some 1,300 are in Tripoli, the capital of Libya.

“We don’t have any information about their whereabouts and condition. Nor are we in

a situation to visit Libya to rescue them,” said Tabdar.

“If they could manage to contact us or reach the Egyptian border, we can help them.”

Sadly, the Nepali Embassy in Cairo, which is commissioned to look after about a dozen countries, including Libya, is short of staff with only ambassador Tabdar and first secretary Aryal stationed there.

Meanwhile, a team of Nepali outsourcing agencies, associated with business in Libya, led by President of Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies Som Lal Bataju, reached Cairo today. The team will co-ordinate with the Nepali Embassy to bring the Nepali workers home safely.
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PARLIAMENT RATIFIES UNCAC UNANIMOUSLY





Kathmandu, Feb. 24 - The Legislature Parliament Thursday ratified the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), Liladhar Upadhaya reports in The Rising Nepal.
The meeting of the Parliament unanimously approved the ratification proposal tabled by the government through voice votes.
Parliamentarians expressed hope that the nation would make a significant progress in corruption control with the ratification of the convention at a time when the nation was in the Transparency International (TI) list of corrupt countries.
"The endorsement of the UNCAC obliges the nation to act against corruption more strongly. We should amend the extradition treaty and other national legal provisions for the effective implementation of the convention," constitutional law expert and joint secretary of the Parliament Tek Prasad Dhungana said talking to The Rising Nepal.
CPN-UML lawmaker Pradeep Gyawali said that the efforts on containing corruption could not be effective just by ratifying the international convention until the nation improved its legal system and corruption control mechanism.
He said that political willpower and transparency within the political parties were needed to take a leap forward in controlling corruption.
UCPN-Maoist lawmaker Ek Raj Bhandari questioned the implementation aspect of the convention. "We have a practice of electing even the proven corrupt as people’s representatives."
Ramesh Lekhak of Nepali Congress said a new hope for good governance was raised with the ratification of the UN Convention. He said that the anti-corruption bodies like Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) should be empowered along with the improvement of corruption related laws.
Dr. Prakash Chandra Lohani of Rastriya Janashakti Party questioned the effective implementation of the provisions of the UN Convention as the political parties have the tendency of encroaching law and order when they held power.
Ram Nath Dhakal of CPN-UML said that the private sector, NGOs, Nepal Army and judiciary should also come under scanner for their wrongdoings.
Chitra Bahadur KC of Rastriya Janamorcha, Nandan Kumar Dutta of Madhesi Janadhikar Forum, Nawaraj Koirala of Nepal Workers and Peasants Party, among others, said that the ratification of the treaty was a positive step for corruption control.
A total of 148 countries around the world have already ratified the UNCAC.
Nepal signed the Convention on December 10, 2003 and the Interim Parliament has already passed a resolution on it.
The UNCAC is the first legally binding international anti-corruption instrument. In its 8 Chapters and 71 Articles, the UNCAC obliges its States Parties to implement a wide and detailed range of anti-corruption measures affecting their laws, institutions and practices.
These measures aim to promote the prevention, criminalisation and law enforcement, international cooperation, asset recovery, technical assistance and information exchange, and mechanisms for implementation.
Responding to the queries raised by the parliamentarians, Minister Bishnu Paudel said that the nation would be able to combat corruption by criminalizing it.
He said that the existing legal provision would be improved and the anti corruption state mechanism would be empowered by making laws.
The Parliament will sit next on Monday.
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