INTERNATIONAL FLIGHTS AFFECTED AFTER AIRPORT RUNWAY CAVES IN

INTERNATIONAL FLIGHTS DIVERTED FOR THREE HOURS AFTER RUNWAY SINKS

Kathmandu, 21 June: International flight operations were affected for three hours for eight in the morning at Tribhuvan International Airport, the country’s only international airport after a section of the runway caved in for the second time this month.
Internal flights weren’t affected as they used a shorter stretch of the runway.
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DIRECT NEPAL MALAYSIA TELECOM LINK UPGRADED

Kathmandu, 21 June: Nepal Telecom (NT) and DIGI Telecommunication of Malaysia signed an agreement in Malaysia Monday to upgrade service and lower call rate between the two countries.
Both companies upgraded their capacities 14 June.
NT Managing Director Bishwanath Goel and DIGI Telecommunication CEO Nenrik Clausen signed the agreement in Malaysia Monday.
“The direct connection will add new possibilities for trade relation between the two countries besides facilitating overall communication,” Goel said.
An estimated 500,000 Nepalis work in Malaysia.
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DIRECT REMITTANCE SERVICE FROM SOUTH KOREA

Kathmandu, 21 June; An estimated 12,000 Nepalis working in South Korea can now remit money home following direct remittance service agreement between Global Bank and Kookmin Bank of South Korea in Kathmandu Monday.
Remittance can be collected from any branch of Global Bank.
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SENIOR ADB OFFICIAL IN TOWN

Kathmandu, 21 June: Sultan Hafeez Rahman, Director General of South Asia Department of Asian Development Bank (ADB) arrived Monday for the three-day visit to discuss the Bank’s present and future programmes prioritizing energy and education sectors with Nepali officials
The Manila-based Bank is Nepal’s largest multilateral investor.
Rahaman, a Bangladeshi, was the Bank’s Nepal Country Director from 2003 to
2006.
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MEDIA GOOGLE

‘They [ a front of four Madeshbadi parties] have presented such a demand [mass integration 10,000 Madeshis in army] now to obstruct the peace process,”

(Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of MJFN Upendra Yadav, Naya Patrika, 21 June)
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RETIRED BRITISH GURKHAS TAKE THEIR CASE TO EU COURT
Kathmandu, 21 June: British Gurkhas are taking their battle for equal pension rights to the European court of human rights challenging the UK Ministry of Defence over the pension disparity, Guardian reported on Monday, according to The Himalayan Times.

According to the report, the British Gurkhas Welfare Society (BGWS) said it was turning to the Strasbourg court after being rebuffed in a test case in the UK. The legal battle is over the fact that Gurkhas who retired before 1997, despite having won the right to settle in the UK after Joanna Lumley's campaign, continue to receive far smaller pensions than their British and Commonwealth counterparts.

A case launched by the BGWS ended with the court of appeal backing the MoD, and the supreme court last December refused the Gurkhas permission to appeal further. The next step is a legal challenge in Strasbourg for allegedly breaching the Gurkhas' human rights.

"We have taken this step reluctantly but with the knowledge that not pursuing legal options further would effectively put a nail in the coffins of many veterans. It is desperately sad that, after many years of committed and courageous service, these old soldiers cannot find justice within the UK's borders - and it should be to the government's shame that the continuing poverty they face goes uncorrected," Guardian quoated the BGWS chairman, Tikendra Dal Dewan, a retired army major, as saying.

In May 2009 the Labour government announced that Gurkha veterans who had served four years or more in the British army before 1997 would be allowed to settle in Britain. However, the former soldiers will have to wait years for a hearing and verdict in their pensions case as the Strasbourg judges are not expected to consider their claim until late 2012 at the earliest, with a final verdict due in 2013 or 2014.
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