FIVE NEPALI GUARDS WITH UN KILLED IN AFGHANISTAN

INDUSTRIES RE-OPEN SATURDAY

Kathmandu, 2 April: More than 1,000 industries closed down by trade unions loyal to Maoist Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya and terai-based parties on the Morang/ Sunsari and Birgunj/ Pathlaiya corridors will resume operations Saturday.
An informal agreement was reached Friday between representatives of management and trade union representatives to create an environment for talks.
The two unions continued the strike even as three unions loyal to Maoists,
NC, and UML first agreed to a Rs 1,500 monthly pay strike and ban strike for four years.
The agreement was described as a sellout by by unions loyal to Baidya and
terai-based parties.
The strike has resulted in millions of rupees losses.
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FIVE NEPALIS KILLED IN AFGHANISTAN

Kathmandu, 2 April: Five Nepali guards and three others manning the
UN office in northern Afghanistan were killed after
demonstrations protesting a reported burning on the Muslim
holy book stormed a UN office Friday, AP reports from Kabul.
However, identities of those Nepalese killed have not been ascertained yet.
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TWO KILLED IN HUMLA EXPLOSION

Kathmandu, 2 April: Two children were killed Friday in an abandoned
bomb explosion at a village in Humla.
The bomb was abandoned during the 10-year Maoist insurgency in a field.
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ARMY CHIEF HOLDS DISCUSSIONS WITH UN OFFICIALS

Kathmandu, 2 April: Army Chief Gen. Chatraman Singh Gurung held discussions in New York with UN Under Secretary General for Political Affairs Lynn B. Pascoe.
He held separate discussions with Under Secretary for Department of Field Support Support Susana Malcorra.
Nepal Army contributes troops for UN peacekeeping operations worldwide.
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NC CENTRAL COMMITTEE MEET CONTINUES SATURDAY

Kathmandu, 2 April: NC central committee will continue discussions
Saturday on activating Nepal Students’ Union—the student wing affiliated to the party.
Supporters of three-time Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba oppose a
move by the establishment side to dissolve the central committee of the
Union and form an ad hic body to hold a general convention for the election of a new leadership.
The committee hasn’t agreed on how to handle the union even after six-day etended discussion
The union has been dysfunctional for years because of the division in the
union.
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NO MORE UML STANDING COMMITTEE MEMBERS IN GOVT.

Kathmandu, 2 April: Standing committee of UML leading the government won’t send anymore sanding committee members to government of Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal who is also party chairman.
“No more standing committee comrade will now be sent to government.
Whoever has gone has gone. An agreement has been reached not to send
anymore from that level,” Vice-chairman Bamdev Gautam told Nagarik
after Friday’s inconclusive standing committee to select more representatives to government.,
The committee will meet Sunday to nominate more government tam members,
Besides Premier Khanal, Deputy Prime Minister Bharat Mohan Addhikari, Education Minister Ganga Lal Tuladhar and Defence Minister Bishnu Paudel are in government from UML.
The UML move means other team government members will come from
the politburo, central committee or other party bodies.
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TOURIST ARRIVALS UP 4.6 PERCENT IN MARCH

Kathmandu, 2 April: Tourist arrivals recorded a 4.6 percent increase
in March compared to the same month in 2010, Immigration Office at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) said.
Altogether 46,491 visitors arrived in March
A total of 118,000 tourists visited Nepal in the first three months of 2011—a 12.5
percent increase compared to the same period the previous year.
Arrivals from India jumped 28 percent.
Arrivals from China and Japan jumped 15.2 and 9.6 percent respectively.
European arrivals fell 12.6 percent while arrivals from USA jumped 22.7 percent.
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TRADER FOUND DEAD IN NAWALPARASI

Kathmandu, 2 April: Trader Bhim Prasad Pant, 41, from the capital was
found dead along Narayani river in in Nawalparasi Thursday.
The family reported to police at Gaushala in the capital Thursday pant left home Wednesday saying he was visiting Baudha.
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CASINOS GET SOME RELIEF

Kathmandu, 2 April: A supreme court single bench of Justice Bal Ram KC
Friday put on hold a government decision to cancel operating licenses of Canino Nepal and Casino Fulbari pending a final court decision.
The court ordered a comprehensive discussion before implementing a tourism ministry decision.
Hotel Soaltee where Casino Nepal is located and Fulbari Hotel challenged in court a decision to recover dues to government from casinos from the hotels m whse ames operating licenses were issued.
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70 FOREIGNERS DEPORTED IN 2010

Kathmandu, 2 April: Nepali authorities have deported a total of 70 foreigners from 22 countries in the year 2010. They were deported for using fake passports and visas, smuggling drugs and for overstaying in Nepal, Kosh Raj Koirala reports in Republica. .

According to the Department of Immigration (DoI), many of those deported were Pakistani and Bangladeshi nationals. The DoI had deported 13 nationals each from Bangladesh and Pakistan in the year 2010.
Immigration officials said while most of the deported Pakistanis were charged with smuggling counterfeit currency and drugs, the Bangladeshis faced the charge of using fake passports and visas.

Officials said DoI deported five nationals each from Somalia, Poland and Iran, four from Ethiopia, three from Korea and two each from Afghanistan and Moldova. One national each from Denmark, Germany, India, United Kingdom, Italy, Russia, Cameroon, France, Nigeria, Latvia and Chad were also deported.

Of the total 70 foreigners deported, 52 had either overstayed their visas or faced the charge of using fake passports while eight others were involved in drug smuggling.
According to the existing immigrations legislations, DOI deports foreign nationals convicted on various crimes including drug smuggling, sexual crime, murder, forgery, overstaying, smuggling of counterfeit currency and arms. Those staying in Nepal for more than a year without visa are also subjected to deportation.

The DoI issues “on arrival” visas to nationals from all countries except 12 countries listed as No.

The immigration authorities stopped issuing “on arrival” visas to nationals from Nigeria, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Cameroon, Somalia, Liberia, Ethiopia, Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan two years ago amid growing instance of involvement of nationals from these countries in various unlawful activities. Nationals from these countries wishing to travel to Nepal must acquire visas from Nepali diplomatic missions abroad before setting off for visit to the country.
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GOVT.TRIES TO COME CLEAN ON ELEPHANTIASIS SCARE
Kathmandu, 2 April: Epidemiology and Disease Control Division (EDCD) today refuted claims that medicines administered against elephantiasis had caused deaths in some districts, The Himalayan Times Reports.

Dr Vishwo Raj Khanal, senior public health administrator at EDCD, rejected media reports that five people had died after consuming the medicine in Nepalgunj and Saptari.

He said Diethylcarbamazine and Albendazole, which have been in use for the past 50 and 20 years respectively, for treating elephantiasis, are the safest drugs.

Khanal added that the government has been distributing the drugs, under Mass Drug Administration programme, with the recommendation from WHO since 2003. The health administrator said they had deployed a team in Nepalgunj and Saptari districts to investigate the deaths and illness reportedly caused by the drugs.

The team to Nepalgunj is led by Dr Yadu Chandra Ghimire of EDCD and will submit its report by Sunday.

EDCD had launched the programme on March 26 and 27 in 36 districts, including Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur.

“If the drugs are defective, deaths or illnesses should have been reported from other districts as we had administrated the drugs to 80 per cent of the targeted population,” said Khanal. He said symptoms like vomiting, dizziness and slight fever are normal, but the drugs cannot cause death. He further added that the drugs should react within some hours after consumption and side effects should be apparent.

Meanwhile, the Nepal Medical Association today expressed concern over the deaths caused by anti-elephantiasis drugs and urged the government to investigate. In 2007, the government had recorded 12 deaths shortly after the elephantiasis campaign. After that EDCD conducted a research in coordination with Institute of Medicine and WHO to find out the reason behind the deaths. It showed that MDA in summer was not appropriate and recommended the government to change the time.

According to the Ministry of Health and Population, the entire population living in 60 districts of the country, where mosquitoes are found, is at a high risk of elephantiasis infection.
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UN TO HELP NEPALI MISSION

Kathmandu, 2 April: UN Headquarters has raised concern about Nepal’s “time-consuming process” in the dispatch of logistics support to its peacekeeping forces deployed in various UN missions and expressed willingness to directly supply such logistics in
Future, Lekhanath Pandey reports in The Himalayan Times.

UN Under-Secretary-General for Department of Field Support, Susana Malcorra floated the idea during her meeting with Chief of Army Staff Chhatra Man Singh Gurung in New York on Thursday. General Gurung is on a two-week official visit to the United States that began on March 26. The UN’s top official expressed concern when Nepal failed to send Armoured Personnel Carriers to Nepal Police peacekeepers deployed in Sudan on time. Nepal Police had supplied APCs to Sudan mission some two years ago, which was later found to be substandard.

Following this, UN had asked the Government of Nepal to re-supply the logistics by the end of December, which Nepal failed to do.

“Citing Nepal’s time-consuming procurement process, UN has expressed interest in providing logistics,” Nepal Army spokesperson, Ramindra Chhetri told The Himalayan Times citing the discussion between Gurung and the UN official.

He, however, maintained that the discussion did not figure in connection with Sudan APCs scam, where investigations found Rs 300 million embezzled.

Currently, Nepal supplies necessary logistics to its international peacekeepers, while the money is reimbursed from the UN.

Gurung also met UN Under-Secretary-General for Department of Political Affairs B Lynn Pascoe, with whom he discussed NA’s possible involvement in other UN peacekeeping missions, including Iraq.

The UN has been lobbying for some 222 Nepali troops to be deployed to war-ravaged Iraq for months, but Nepal wants to be clear whether troops will remain under the UN or NATO.
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