SIX DEAD, FIVE DOZEN INJURED IN TWO BUS ACCIDENTS

SIX DEAD MORE THAN FIVE DOZEN INJURED IN TWO BUS ACCIDENTS

Kathmandu, 10 May: Five persons died and 51 were injured when a bus fell 300meters off a road into a river near Khara in Rolpa Tuesday morning,
The bus was heading for Tulsipur, Dang, from Rolpa district headquarters.
The driver of the overloaded bus is absconding.
Surya Bahadur Malla, a professor from Baglung, when a bus met with an accident in Dhading Tuesday morning as well.
The bus was heading for the capital from Baglung in themed-West.
Deadly vehicular accidents have become daily occurrences especially as the monsoon approaches.
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PM KHANAL, BAN KI-MOON MEET

Kathmandu, 10 May: Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal Monday held his first 30-minute direct discussions with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during the sidelines of a conference of least developed countries in Istanbul, Turkey, Monday.
They met as the secretary-general expressed concern with the delay in the completion of the peace process and constitution drafting.
Khanal briefed the UN chief on the latest political situation in Nepal.
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SUDHIR KUMAR SHAH APPOINTED HOME MINISTRY SPOKESMAN

Kathmandu, 10 May: Joint Secretary has been appointed home ministry spokesman.
The appointment comes with the transfer of Maoist Deputy Prime Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara from the communication to the home ministry.
Finance Minister Bharat Mohan Adhikari of UML and Upendra Yadav from MJFN are the other two deputy prime ministers.
Adhikari is the senior most deputy premier.
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RPP-NEPAL TO LAUNCH ANTI-GOVT NATION-WIDE PROTESTS FROM MID-DAY

Kathmandu, 10 May: RPP-Nepal will launch nation-wide anti-government from mid-May demanding fresh elections to elect a new constituent assembly (CA).
Third extension of the assembly tenure after 28 May isn’t an alternative, Chairman Thapa told the party central committee meet Monday.
RPP-Nepal is a democratic party that supports constitutional monarchy an a Hindu state.
Rashtriya Janashakti Party Monday opposed the extension of the CA tenure.
A front of three Madesh parties hase also expressed opposition.
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UML LAWMAKER ALSO IMPLCATED IN DIPLOMATIC PASSPORT MISUSE

Kathmandu, 10 May: Police have started investigation for the misuse of diplomatic passport by Narad Muni Rana, a lawmaker of ruling UML, Balaraj Baniya reports in Kantipur.
Metropolitan police Sunday asked parliament secretariat through letter to send Rana along with his passport to its office.
The secretariat wrote a letter to Rana Monday asking him to go to the police office with the passport.
According to foreign ministry record, Rana holds two red [diplomatic] passports and one has been misused.
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STRONG COMMITMENT NEEDED TO MITIGATE LDCs WOES: PM





Kathmandu, 10 May: Prime Minister Jhala Nath Khanal Monday called for the strong political will and renewed commitments from both the LDCs and the development partners to mitigate the woes of more than 800 million people living in the LDCs, Shreedhar Acharya reports in The Rising Nepal from Istanbul.
"The international community and global architecture should be responsive to the constraints of and opportunities for LDCs. The voice and representation of LDCs should be ensured in all international forums for their effective mainstreaming into the global governance processes," Prime Minister Khanal said while addressing the opening session of the fourth UNLDC Conference in Istanbul, Turkey.
He said that there was the need for the timely restructuring some of the global institutions including the UN to make them more effective in meeting the present and future needs and expectations of the most needy and vulnerable segments of the world population.
PM Khanal said that the number of the LDCs had grown from 25 in 1971 to 48 at present, which he said, clearly suggested that there were flaws somewhere in development paradigm. "This calls for a serious attention of the international community to address the inequities in the current global political and economic order and injudicious use of resources."
"We have the highest level of inequality at the global level today than at any time in history. In other words, we face a kind of developmental emergency in the LDCs. Therefore we call for urgent and comprehensive action to build resilience and address vulnerabilities," he said.
PM Khanal, who is also the current chair of LDCs, said they aimed high to graduate half of the LDCs from this status in the next decade.
"Our vision is to create inclusive and sustained economic growth, eradicate poverty and build strong and resilient society. That is possible only with a strong productive capacity and economic infrastructure to fuel a rapid and inclusive growth in LDCs. Productive capacity development requires sustained and coherent national and international efforts," he observed
Khanal said that the conference should chart out an ambitious yet realistic and forward looking vision with a result oriented program of action.
He said that since the last conference in Brussels a decade ago, LDCs have made progress in some of the areas of human and social development, in particular, in gender empowerment, education and health. "We are glad to note that the institutionalization of democracy and good governance has made good headway."
"But the Brussels Program of Action still remains an unfinished agenda. The incidences of poverty, scale of deprivation, lack of essential services, deep structural constraints and paucity of energy and infrastructure have significantly hindered our development prospects."
He said that the global economic and financial crises were still having delayed impacts on them as they are affecting resource flow into the LDCs including investment, tourism and remittances.
Impacts of climate change is disproportionately affecting the livelihood of our people, because of our over dependence on natural resources and the least adaptive capacity, said the PM.
Khanal said that in the last one decade, Nepal made progress in rural energy and infrastructure, considering low development base. "Micro-hydro, solar energy and biogas have transformed the lives of many of our people having access to them now. So is the case of rural connectivity with roads and communications. Resources, right policy framework and a multi-stakeholder approach have made all the difference."
Informing the ongoing political process in Nepal, PM Khanal said that they had made determined efforts to institutionalize democracy in the country in an atmosphere of peace, harmony and social justice within the new framework of Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal."
"We are engaging ourselves currently in the task of concluding the peace process through political dialogue, consensus and accommodation," PM Khanal said.
He said that the government had been making every effort to build national consensus on issues of peace and constitution in a fully democratic spirit of inclusiveness and participation. Once we have completed these twin tasks of the peace process and writing a new constitution, we will be focusing our undivided attention on economic development and growth with a human face through public-private partnership with a strong cooperative sector as the third pillar.


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